What's in a name
by troublesomefox21
Summary: Midoriya Izuku is very much done with life. He's tired. What better way to fix that then to help people behind a mask? He's not a hero, really. How can he be after everything he's done? Except people seem to disagree and soon enough, he's dragged through stuff he never thought he would and to be honest, that's saying a lot.
1. Chapter 1

Heyo, this is my first work in the BNHA fandom. For those who recognize my pen name, I've written a few other stories though they're Naruto. Um, I'm really not the best at updating but I have quite a bit written for this story already. Hope you like it and don't forget to comment. XOXO

Also, this is cross posted through A03.

XXX

Chapter One: Hold your Breath and Count to Ten

A yawn broke through the otherwise silent room. Emerald eyes glanced at his clock before turning back to his desk despite the rather late hour. His thumb carefully smudging the edge of the picture before picking up another pencil and continuing. He had another notebook to the side, for references, that he would turn to every so often.

Time passed before he slumped back in his seat. He closed both journals before standing back up. He silently opened his door and made his way to the other room down the hall. The boy skillfully avoided the loose floorboards and only stepped on the ones he knew wouldn't creak.

He pushed open the door and let out a relieved breath before walking further in.

He grabbed the comforter laying on the bed and draping in across sweater clad shoulders. He studied his mother for a moment, pain flashing in his eyes before it was pushed down. His eyes drifted to the desk and he bit his lip to keep from cursing.

His fingers shuffled the papers lightly and he only managed to read a few words. Numbers. But it was enough. He sighed, putting them back in their place before walking out. He turned the main light off and shut the door before going back into his own room.

He should really go to sleep but found himself pulling more notebooks from his shelf. To be honest, it was slightly unnerving how many notebooks were on it. He grabbed his phone and turned off his light, making his way into the kitchen. He debated making tea before his eyes noticed the clock again. He wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight, so coffee would be better.

He hid his yawn behind his hand, sitting at the table and opened to the most recent page and scanned it. Two weeks ago…

A pencil was moving across paper yet again and he ignored the urge to shake the cramps out of his hand. He erased, wrote more, opening to the other book and scanned for ideas on how this could work. Numbers and calculations were made quickly but precisely.

He caught the coffee machine right before it beeped and poured some. His mother was asleep, he knew nothing would wake her up having pulled three nightshifts in a row, but he didn't want to disturb her.

He scratched his ankle, eyes falling on something he had been trying to ignore since he was asked. He let out a small groan, it wasn't like he had a choice. They needed the money and his mother needed sleep.

"Fuck."

He really wasn't looking forward to this. His hands palmed his eyes roughly. The resigned breath made his hands push harder into the sockets and he quickly let go. He downed the rest of the now warm drink and stood up. Putting the todays date by the request, he quickly closed the notebooks and put the mug into the sink.

The notebooks returned to their proper place on the shelves and he grabbed his backpack, shoving school clothes for tomorrow (technically today) into it before shutting the door. He wrote a quick note and left it on the table; telling his mother that he had gone to school early to talk to his teachers.

His feet led him to a familiar alley, and he shed his clothes -ignoring the morning chill- stepping into the familiar get-up with ease. He pushed his bangs back with annoyance when they fell right back. He hid his backpack between the wall and a dumpster. As he exited the alleyway, he quickly entered the location into the flip phone before slipping it back into his pouch. From there, he began a jog that lasted for a good hour before he came to where he needed, all the while following the red, blipping dot that showed the required route through the visor he was wearing.

He slowed to a stop, his breaths ragged as he looked up at the tall building. It was in a better part of town and it showed. His hand wiped at his masked chin and he shook his head. This was insane.

"Shedo, show me the way up."

_"Infra-red shows no guards at the east entrance. You can find a trash chute on the second floor."_

__He followed the others advice without question. Shedo, the AI system he had designed last year, hadn't let him down yet. He was still relieved that the first years at the Junior High all spent a week visiting places related to a workplace so they got to thinking about what they wanted to do when they got older.

Of course, going to the Heroic Government Center of Tokyo had been their favorite. It had been his as well. Given that it was how he got most, if not all, of the gadgets he was using. Though, he did tweak them all once he deemed himself safe.

He still had no idea how he managed that.

The trash chute was disgusting, in case you were ever wondering. It smelled terrible and his thighs strained to hold up his weight as he pulled the mask up to cover his nose. Usually the hood was enough…

He came to the twelfth floor, throwing himself out and winced at the loud thud that followed.

"Pull up night vision, Shedo. Talk me through client Hadaki and his request. Shut off hallway cameras."  
A small ding and he quickly got used to the black and white vision that followed. His frame stayed close to the wall before he leaped, his gloves and shoes sticking to the ceiling.

He watched the woman walk down, yawning. Based on what she was wearing and the gym bag over her shoulder, she was going to the gym. He sighed quietly before falling back down to a crouch.

"_Client gave name Hadaki. Male. 38 years old. Quirk allows him to detect peoples moods. Married with two children. He suspects his wife to be cheating with their pediatrician. Wants proof and evidence."_

He came to the correct apartment, studying the lock before opening his utility belt. After picking the lock, he entered quietly, waiting a moment. Once it was clear, he shut the door and locked it behind him.

"Activate infra-red."

His vision changed again and he found his way to the bedroom soon enough. The door was open. Two people were laying on the bed and he stiffened. His hand came to the side of the glasses before clicking the button several times.

He took a quiet breath before walking over to the desk. "Activate night vision."

He found photos in the drawers but that was it. After copies were made, he walked out of the room. His eyes scanned for anything at the surface before entering the kitchen. Photos of the wives purse and coat on the counter. He was about to go into the bathroom next when an alarm went off.

He swore, quickly scaling the countertops before laying face down on the small space between the ceiling and cupboards. They were talking and he activated the audio recorder. The visor zoomed back in the bedroom before following the two people that exited.

"I don't want to go, Hoshi-kun."

The male put some bread into a toaster. He wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Unless you agree, you have to. We've been through this, Mino."

The woman whined, pulling the robe tighter to her naked body.

"It's cold."

The man, Hoshito, laughed and picked her up, setting her on the counter. He laughed along with her giggles. The hidden boy bit his lip painfully as his finger clicked for more photos. He tuned them out, still recording.

His eyes were unfocused as laughter rang from the bathroom. He climbed down, the smell of burnt toast clouding his senses. He paused at the ring on the counter, taking another picture. Walking the short distance to the hallway, he took more pictures of the sweats and robe that lay limp on the floor.

He left, shutting the audio off at a scream, making sure to lock it back into place. He ran, Shedo alerting him that people were beginning to wake up. His shoulder blades hit the bolts in the trash chute. He made sure to exit the same way he came.

Once he made it back into the alley way, only two blocks away from the Junior High, he ripped the mask off and gasped for air. His legs hurt and his head pounded. His arms rested on knees, head in his hands and he refrained from asking himself any questions that came to mind. Checking the time, he knew he didn't have any to spare.

Deciding to deal with this all later, he changed into his school uniform. He regretted forgetting a water bottle and forced himself to walk to school. One hand was stuck in his hair and he pulled, grounding himself to the present and not the past. Never the past.

He came to his class right when the bell rang.

"Midoriya! Do you have a late note?"

Midoriya Izuku grit his teeth, arms waving uselessly. "No."

The teacher pointed to the door. "Go get one. You know the rules."

Midoriya had a hard time not telling the teacher where he could put his stupid note and walked towards the principals office. He stopped, drinking greedily at the water fountain. In that moment he realized that he had also forgotten his lunch at home.

Izuku palmed his face again, shaking off both annoyance and sleep and got the permission slip. Walking back, class continued. He didn't fall asleep, but that didn't mean that he paid any attention to what the teacher was saying. He still managed to take notes but none of it registered in his mind.

The bell rang and Izuku ignored his stomach, sleeping through lunch period and the school day continued. He took a second to be grateful there weren't any tests today. There was no way he could focus enough for one.

After class he quickly ran home, hoping to avoid his mother before she came back from work. He connected his headset to the computer and transferred his findings onto an empty USB. He grabbed an apple before making his way back to the alleyway to change.

He hopped on a truck that was going to the Sakito district before making his way to Hadaki's place. Without meaning to, his mind ran through what he had been avoiding.

Memories of Hisashi, mostly. He barely remembered a time they had been a happy family but he knew they existed at one point. But once the man began to suspect his son was quirkless…well, things changed. His dad wasn't around as much and when he was, his parents seemed to fight. All the time.

He found out about his father's affair when he turned seven. But he knew it was going on long before then. He confronted him mom, not understanding what it all meant. They kept up the façade for a couple months, he had no idea why until the divorce settled.

Money. It always came down to money.

Hisashi paid child support, yes. At first anyway. Whenever Izuku looked through the bills his mom tried to hide from him, he couldn't find any. He knew the checks stopped coming a couple years ago though. Since that was when they moved.

But in the end, they moved to a cheaper apartment. It was a couple prefectures away and he started going to a new school. Friends seemed both impossible to make and unnecessary. With the move, his mother lost her job because of the distance. Even though it was promised. And the only job she could find was half the pay and twice the workload.

…All because of a cheating bastard.

He soon found himself at the restaurant Hadaki owned. Going through the back of the building, all alleys and backways were connected, he opened the door. Midoriya ignored the startled workers and made his way to his client's office, throwing the door open before throwing the USB at the others chest.

The man screamed and Izuku realized that he wasn't doing a very good job staying hidden and secretive. Tact, you could say, would have been a good thing in this situation.

After calming his workers, Hadaki came back in, locking the door. Izuku stood in the middle of the office and waited.

"Did-did you get it? Did you catch them?"

Midoriya really wished he didn't sound as excited as he did. He didn't understand why the guy was hoping for his wife to be cheating on him. It didn't seem healthy to the boy.

"It's all there."

The other rubbed his hands together, plugging the USB into the computer and waited for it to boot up. Hadaki ignored the off-putting deep voice from the rather short… guy? Vigilante? In his opinion the other was a hero so it didn't matter to him.

Izuku gave the other another minute. He wanted to get out of here and be done with this mission. He wanted to go home. But he still had another stop to make.

"I've completed my end of the deal."

The man grinned madly at him, standing and walking over to the safe in the corner of the room. Izuku still hadn't moved, listening as the man counted out loud.

"Three, three-fifty, four, four-fifty and five thousand."

Izuku grabbed the money from the other, counting himself.

"I really appreciate this. Thank you."

Midoriya rose an eyebrow, even though the other couldn't see it. He turned. "You know how to find me."

The other thanked him again and Midoriya left. He had to wait a few minutes before somebody headed back his way and hopped onto the semi. Once he was back in his city, he had to go back into the alley. To change. Again. God, he was so tired. Izuku managed to pull himself together to go to the bank and deposit the money he had gotten. They had seen him enough to not ask questions, despite the oddness of the situation.

If Midoriya cared, he would be worried that the bankers would take anywhere from a couple hundred to double digit thousands of dollars from a kid. But, he didn't.

It would go through tomorrow and after that he would be able to pay for the water and electricity. His mother would pay rent first. She always did. If he was lucky, they wouldn't put any additional charges on the payments. He would be paying in full, instead of the separate payments that were usually paid. Hopefully he would have enough to get something for his mom.

He generally avoided…working, if he could help it. He knew that if his mom found out then it would just worry her. He wouldn't call himself a hero, if anything he felt the opposite. Heroes didn't work for money after all.

Izuku stood in the middle of the kitchen for a moment, trying to decide if he wanted to eat or take a nap before his mom came home. In the end he settled for a nap but set an alarm. He wanted to get a head start on dinner. After changing into pajamas, he laid down.

He was dead to the world minutes later.

He almost missed his alarm, very tempted to go back to sleep. He got up anyway and took a shower. Izuku raided the cupboards, trying to decide on what to make. They had stuff for yakitori, which was his mothers favorite. He debated if he should make it tonight or next week, which was her birthday.

After a very hard internal battle, he decided to make it tonight. He could just do another job to get some food later on.

Midoriya found himself smiling as he worked, despite being stressed and tired. He put on Present Mics station as he worked, laughing quietly at the pro hero. He was… interesting. Not one of his personal favorites but he was pretty cool. He didn't really have a favorite hero anymore.

After plating the food, he glanced at the clock in mild confusion. It was after seven. His mom was usually home by now. The thought of something happening to her crossed his mind before he shook his head. She had worked extra shifts often, much to his displeasure. It wouldn't be the first time.

Izuku felt bad for caving after twenty minutes. He hadn't had anything to eat that day besides the apple and he was hungry. A small scowl reached his face, no matter how much he made this, it never tasted as good as his moms. It was annoying and he didn't know what he was missing.

Grr.

After an hour had passed, he put the leftovers away and checked his phone. He frowned at the lack of replies from his mom. She would usually message him to let him know that she was working late at least. Still, it wouldn't be the first time. He set his phone down, determined not to call. She wouldn't be able to answer anyway.

Three hours later, he was half convinced that his lack of sleep was finally getting to him. His mind was going over everything that could have happened and knew it was stupid to worry. His mom was fine. The diner she worked at closed at three, so he would only have to stay awake a few more hours.

He called the diner twenty minutes later, chilled when they said that she hadn't come in today at all. He thanked them, ignoring their questions if she was alright. Because no, she wasn't.

Midoriya was a moment away from running out and looking for her when he remembered the previous night and felt stupid. She hadn't been feeling well the past couple days, (nothing but a headache, she had said) but it was possible that she stayed home.

Izuku snorted, trying to calm his nerves. He rubbed his eye, worry leaving and suddenly his wish for sleep caught up to him. His fingers rapped on the door.

"Mom?"

He frowned, knocking harder. "Mom?"

Upon not getting an answer, he opened the door.

"Mom?"

He stilled, eyes on his mother who was still laying on the desk. The lamp was still on. She hadn't moved since last night?

He shook her, "Mom, wake up."

The kid tried for another few minutes before running back into the living room and calling an ambulance. He tried to stay calm but his eyes burned and his mind ran. He pulled her out of the chair and laid her on her bed.

She was breathing, at least. But she was burning up. His hands pulled at his hair uselessly as he looked at her, pleading for her to just wake up. He heard the front door open and he rushed into the front room before showing them where she was. They asked where his dad was.

Midoriya cursed them. His dad was gone. The assholes. Did it _look_ like he was _here_?

Riding in an ambulance would have been cooler if his mom wasn't hooked up to bags and wires and machines. People wouldn't stop crowding her. She hated being crowded.

Izuku sat in the waiting room wearing sweats and a hoody as his leg bounced anxiously. He had forgotten shoes in his haste. An empty cup of coffee was held in his hands, it was the fourth one in two hours. His eyes felt heavy.

"Hey, kiddo. Why don't you try and get some rest?"

His eyes snapped up, having a hard time focusing for a moment. It was a nurse, pillow and blanket in her hand.

"You can sleep on a bed in the on call room. It would be comfier than a chair."

She looked hopeful and the offer was tempting. It really was, but he shook his head.

"Not until I hear what's wrong. Have you heard anything? The patients name is Midoriya Inko."  
The nurse sent him a pitying look and Izuku knew, he just knew, that something was wrong. She shuffled, pushing her hair behind her horns.

"The doctor plans to talk to you tomorrow. She wants you to get some rest."

Izuku looked down. He knew a losing fight when he saw one. He wiped uselessly at his eyes and stood, grabbing the pillow and blanket from the other before following. The bed was plastic and the room was cold.

He felt colder.

XXX

Izuku's hand was useless to muffle his sobs. His back hit the wall. His eyes darkened as he looked at the doctor in disbelief. His body shook and with each word the other said, he slid further and further down until he was on the floor.

The doctor looked at him with sad eyes but she had done this enough to know that it was easier to get it all out and done with.

"Cancer at this stage is difficult, no matter the kind. Pancreatic is nearly impossible to detect in early stage, there wasn't anything you could have done. There are options but I'll be honest. It doesn't look good."

Izuku's hand dropped and his head hit the wall. Hard.

Stage four pancreatic cancer.

Why in gods name did it have to happen to her?

"Unfortunately, you are a minor. You…you're barely a teen. We've called your father but he doesn't want to get involved."

Izuku let out a wet scoff. His tongue scraped his teeth. "Of course he doesn't. He's a fucking bastard. We- It's just been her and I. For years. She doesn't have any family. It's just been the two of us."

The doctor looked away for a moment. In all her years, nothing like this has happened. There had always been somebody. Somebody but the kid. And she had been doing this for a very long time.

"I am so sorry, Midoriya-kun."

The boy nodded, because that was what he was. He was just a kid. He stood against the wall, wiping his eyes hard before wiping them on his pants. He nodded some more, meeting her eyes after a moment.

"So, what," He cleared his throat. "What are our options? You said that there were options?"

The doctor nodded herself, swallowing roughly. She looked at the clipboard, she already knew what it said but she could always hope it had changed since the last time she looked at it.

She held her hand out. "My name is Doctor Namino. We'll be spending a lot of time together."

He shook her hand, and it was rough. Like this kid had already been through a lot. She wouldn't doubt it if that was the case.

"Midoriya Izuku."

She nodded, leading him into her office to talk. This won't be easy. By any means.

XXX

|Roughly four months later|

The day was hot. The sun was bright and there weren't any clouds. The trees were old, the flowers bright and the grass was green. It looked soft. It was quiet. By most standards, it was a beautiful day.

The headstone was pointless. A casket was too expensive and the jar was heavy in too small hands. The flowers looked stupid. The headstone didn't stand out. Only two people showed up to the funeral. Three, if you count the priest.

Midoriya Izuku and the social worker.

"Let's get going, Izuku-kun."

The teen, the fourteen-year-old, didn't move. "I'll meet you in the car, Katami-san."

A large hand patted his shoulder and walked off, giving him a moment of privacy. Midoriya squatted, setting the urn down and traced the letters.

Midoriya Inko

2066 – 2099

Headstones were expensive. Who would have thought they charged by the letter? By the number?

The lone Midoriya stood, grabbing the flowers and setting the urn by the stone. He shoved his empty hand in his slacks pocket. His jaw twitched and his eyes burned but he didn't cry. Not since he first found out.

He pulled out a familiar letter from his pocket. He had read it many, many times and he probably knew it by heart. He did know it by heart.

'_Dear Izuku,_

_Time has just flown by. I remember holding you in my arms for the first time. I had never seen anything as beautiful as you. You were my little angel. You always have been. I watched you grow into a smart and caring boy. You were always so sweet and selfless. It seemed unfair for you to be born with me as your mother. You deserved so much more. You deserve more, Izuku._

_I have made mistakes, I know. Your father being one and destroying your dream another. I have no real hope that you'll forgive me. I don't think you should. Not after the life I've given you._

_You can be a hero, Izuku. I know you can. I should have told you years ago. Not having a quirk doesn't define you, your heart does. Yours is made of solid gold. Become a hero, baby. Show people how amazing you are. You've always been my little hero._

_Love you always and forever, _

_Mom'_

He sniffed, jaw clenched as he toed the ground. His face was pinched and god, this was so hard.

Letting out a sigh, he kissed the paper before tucking it between the stone and urn. He turned, walking away with nothing but a bouquet of irises. He opened the front seat of the social workers car without a word. Two boxes and a backpack sat in the backseat.

Midoriya Inko died July fifteenth and left her son alone. But not by choice. Never by choice.


	2. XXX

Heyo~ I'm going to try and not do authors notes, as it falsely adds to the story word count and that annoys me. Just wanted to thank you for all your follows and love. Hope you like this chapter.

XXX

Midoriya was the oldest child at the orphanage. He got his own room. It wasn't in bad shape and it wasn't a bad orphanage. Not in the matrons were kind and the children were free to play and eat as they wished as long as they listened to them and the rules.

Be in bed by ten o'clock.

Do your homework and chores.

Eat all your food.

If you were good, you'd get an allowance.

It was painfully easy for Izuku to get used to the orphanage. He knew there wasn't a chance for him to get adopted and if he was being honest, he didn't want to be. He's already had a family and he didn't want to replace his mom.

He changed schools and he blended in with the background easily enough. He's been quiet. Always had been. But he's never spoke unless he had to since his mother died.

He got good grades. He stayed in shape. Life went on.

Life went on. _Unfortunately._

The matrons quickly learned that Midoriya Izuku was as independent as a child could get. He made his own food, did his own laundry, woke up and went to bed without being told. He was a good kid. They left him be for the most part.

It was only a couple months after everything when Midoriya was walking out of a convenience store when the teenager heard a scream.

It was afterschool on a Friday and he was in casual clothes, a hoody and jeans. He had taken to wearing a beanie at all times and red sneakers that he found that were always sold at the store down the street. The sun was coming down and he was due to head back to the orphanage.

Midoriya stood, eating another chip as he decided what to do. He had stopped working underground after his mother died. He'd rather not get involved in anything like that again if he could help it. Luckily, he could.

There was another scream and he found himself running reguardless.

He slowed when he saw what was happening. It seemed so cliché he wondered if it was real.

"Hand over all your money!"

The man hastily complied, going as far as handing over his watch. His eyes glanced worriedly to his girlfriend who was held at knifepoint.

The two low-lives laughed. One of them had a large head and breath Izuku could smell from here. The other had clawed feet that were thrice the size of normal. Sometimes, Midoriya found himself thankful that he was quirkless. It would be better than having their quirks.

Midoriya quickly held a finger to his lips when the woman saw him. Her eyes glinted with understanding but yelped in pain when her hair was pulled. The teen frowned, grabbing a piece of plywood that was half cracked and leaning against the dumpster. It was rotting, molding and had slightly suspicious stains. Once he found a good grip, he aimed for the mans kneecaps and swung.

The foot guy fell and the other flipped out. Midoriya jumped backwards as the other lunged at him. The knife was big.

He ducked, aiming a kick at the others feet and he fell hard and fast. Izuku stood, looking between the two with his fists raised, waiting for them to stand. And waited some more.

"…The hell?"

"Thank you so much, you're a hero!"

Izuku looked at the two, almost forgetting they were there. He nodded, looking back at the two lowlifes. The confusion was evident in his voice when he replied, "No problem."

The man shook his head stubbornly. "No, thank you! I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been here."

Izuku swallowed, nodding and made a move to leave. The others shout stopped him.

"Wait! How can we thank you?"

Izukus face showed his discomfort, coughing uncomfortably before looking back at the two. He continued to walk backwards.

"Just be careful next time."

The two showed surprised but nodded, yelling their thanks again but Midoriya paid no heed.

Once he got back to his room, he locked the door before sitting in his desk. His fingers tapped on his desk anxiously before opening his laptop. A goodbye gift of sorts from his mothers doctor and the social worker.

He closed his eyes, shaking his head as his fingers typed what he had been avoiding for months.

Hero.

Super simple and his heart constricted at the articles that came up. His mothers last words rang empty in his ears and he slowly added to the search. Emeralds narrowed in consideration.

Quirkless heroes.

There was nothing. Just as there hadn't been years ago. But…

His mother wanted it and what could it hurt? It wasn't like he had anything to lose.

Since the dawn of heroes, you needed a quirk. It didn't even matter if it was helpful or useless. You had to have one or it seemed impossible for you to be one. It's always been that way. Overtime, quirks changed from an annoyance to a state of humanity. It became the norm.

It's just the way things were and if you didn't have one then you were different. Useless. Disabled. Stupid.

At least that's how Izuku remembered it. He hadn't talked about his lack of quirk to anyone in years. Like, years. Even when he worked underground, people thought he had some kind of quirk. It usually leaned towards analysis or the brain.

But no. He was quirkless. And smart, apparently.

He sighed, pulling the beanie off and letting his head fall onto the desk with a loud thump. This was insane. And stupid. Exactly what his mother wouldn't want.

But she was smarter than to think that he could get into a hero course without a quirk. Hell, get anywhere without a quirk.

Izuku didn't know what she was talking about. Maybe she wasn't even being serious. There was always a chance that she was just saying that to make up for what she believed to be a mistake. It hurt to think his mother would do that but he didn't know.

He didn't know anything nowadays.

He sat back up, pulling a notebook from his shelf. He allowed a pang of regret. He had burned all his notebooks in a bout of rage a couple months into his mothers fight against cancer. Hell, he was still mad. That didn't mean that he doesn't miss all his notebooks.

All the time. All the effort.

He whined, opening a new page and grabbing a pencil.

He still thought this was stupid and probably not what his mother had in mind but he needed to do something. He was tired of feeling…stuck. He was tired of not doing anything. Everyday had a routine and it was getting tiring.

If Midoriya was going to do this, he was going to do it right. Well, technically what he was going to do was illegal. Highly, illegal. Go to jail for years illegal. But it was for a good cause. He wasn't going to do anything bad.

God, now he sounded like a villain.

He slapped himself, shoving his beanie back on and got to drawing. He remembered thinking, months ago, that he wasn't a hero because he did it for money. Not that he ever called himself a hero. But he was never a villain. At least he liked to think not.

But if he was going to do this, it was so that he could help people. Without any bigger plans or desires. Was that selfish? Did that even make sense? Maybe it was hypocritical. After all, he was doing this to make up to his mom, right? For what? He didn't know. Maybe it was because she asked?

Fucking shit, this was insane.

XXX

Midoriya sewed around the small child on his lap. She was about two, her parents having died in a crash. Izuku learned not to get close to the kids, especially the younger ones. They always got adopted, luckily. That doesn't mean he doesn't miss them. A little bit.

On a side note, he mused as he was finally finishing his costume, the little girl currently sleeping on his lap was adorable. Completely and utterly adorable. She had only been here a week and she immediately latched onto him. She had a flying quirk, obvious given the wings she had. They looked like a typical angels, but light blue and not white.

Izuku sighed, wringing his fingers out and slumped away from the sewing machine. He was glad the matrons didn't ask why he wanted it. They hadn't used it in years so they didn't care. Midoriya got the feeling that they had actually forgotten about the machine.

He carefully lifted the girl up and walked out of his room, making sure to shut the door. He made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen. Dinner started ten minutes ago.

"You got her to sleep."

He sent the young patron an amused look but didn't say anything. They were having sandwiches, again, but he didn't mind. Shifted the kid higher onto his shoulder, he ate with one hand, not bothering to sit down.

"How was school?"

The kids were screaming at the table. The couple that ran the orphanage went on a much needed vacation two days ago. They were due to return at the start of the new week, but that didn't mean that the two remaining workers weren't struggling. Because they were.

Ten kids, sans Midoriya, were a lot to care for. They tended to not include Midoriya in their daily complaints because there wasn't anything to complain about. At times he was the only one the kids listened to.

Midoriya shrugged. "It was fine."  
The other male scoffed but didn't say anything. That was his answer whenever somebody asked. Fine. He was fine. Maybe one day they'd believe him.

"I'm gonna go lay her down."

The worker nodded and quickly defused the food fight that almost started. Izuku shook his head, walking down to the nursery. He laid her down, thankfully she didn't need to be changed.

After telling the same worker that he was going to bed, he headed upstairs. He was definitely not going to bed. He was in his final year of Junior High, thankfully. The school year was just starting so hopefully he would have time to finish making what he had in mind before the school year got too in depth.

He had thrown out his old accessories from underground a little before his mother died. He needed to get new ones.

After dressing in dark clothes -not there he wore much else these days-, he made his way onto the roof before jumping down to the trampoline. Ah, despite not doing 'hero' work or working in the underground, Izuku frequently snuck out. This wasn't new.

Dagobah Beach was far, but it was a really good spot to find materials and scraps. He had to buy the fabric for his suit at the store, but he made the holsters and braces from the stuff here. He had finished a crafting shed when he first came here just a couple weeks ago.

He was hesitant to do this, but he figured it would be best if he had both a lethal weapon and a non – lethal weapon. He really didn't like to think about what would happen if he got caught but knew it was more than likely.

So, after much thought, he decided for a tri-folding quarterstaff and push knifes. It was pretty risky since he wasn't trained in either of them. But he was a quick learner and had taken a couple hand-to-hand lessons at Hisashis prompting. He hadn't wanted a completely useless son, of course.

At least the bastard was good for something.

Heating metal was really hard, really hard when you didn't have top notch equipment. He also learned that gloves are a good thing. This was quite the experience.

"Shit!"

The broken piece of metal cracked. Again. He was getting really tired of that happening. It was luck alone that this beach never ran out of metal. He tried again.

It took the whole week but by the end of it, he had two knifes and the quarterstaff. Thank god.

Once that was said and done, he waited until a few days into the new school year passed before making his…debut. Most of the kids were tired having gone back to school after the summer break so they were asleep. The matrons were just glad to see a bed.

The pants were leather for durability. He wore a light chainmail long sleeved shirt under a dark green, zip up hoody. It was tighter and short sleeved. He was so proud of them not turning out to be crap. Even if it took many, many attempts for them to look as nice as they did.

He gave up on finding shoes that he actually liked, when the only ones that seemed to fit his apparently high standards were the red sneakers from the convenience store. However, they were modified. He couldn't make them completely sound absorbent, but it was close.

The bracers were black, layered with both leather and thin metal. They went on his forearms. He wasn't planning on making shin or elbow ones at all. Those were a bit harder too make and he's been losing his patience.

The holsters on his thighs, for the push knifes, were green. The quarterstaff holster was for his back, between his shoulder blades. They were the same green as the other holsters but had his self given name burned into the sheath.

Midorikari.

Unless you have ever had to come up with an alias, shut up. It was hard. He knew it was stupid. But he tried his best. That's what matters.

So, Green Light it is.

It was _original_, okay?

Izuku took a moment to wonder who he was talking to before deeming this as more evidence that he was, in fact, insane. He then made his way to his window and followed the normal escape route. He pulled the hood over his hair and pulled the mask up.

His hair had grown longer, being able to put it into a ponytail. The mask was black and went up and over his nose.

He took a deep breath, giving himself a moment to act on his knowledge that this was going to end terribly before he found himself running down 6th street. He climbed the fire escape before settling on a roof.

This was a really, really bad part of town.

Perfect place to start, right?

XXX

A week later, five nights of which were spent out and about, Izuku could tell you with all honesty that it was painful. Legitimately painful to be a vigilante. So far, he had been punched in the face, kicked in the balls, (that was a long story) got stabbed in the arm and thrown through a wall. Twice.

Despite all this, he found himself beginning to enjoy it. Which probably wasn't a good thing. What was a good thing, was that he usually wore hoodies around so nobody saw the bruises and the huge ass bandaging he had on his arm. He was glad that this was working and nobody was calling for his insanity. Yet.

Right now, he was in the middle of a math test.

He had no fucking idea how he wasn't failing school right now. Not that he wasn't smart, he knew he was. But he spent most of the time sleeping through class. Still, homework came back with little to no mark downs and tests were nothing but a brain teaser.

Who knows? Maybe school was his quirk after all.

He snorted, slumping further into his seat at the glare the teacher sent.

His eyes glanced at the clock. Maybe he'd have time to browse through a hero feed before he headed out.


	3. Spiral

"Oh, boy."

Feet hit the concrete painfully, having been in this chase for nearly half an hour now. His hood had fallen off, something he had learned wasn't reliable when it came to his little hobbies. He had taken to wearing a bandana instead that was able to hide his hair.

After doing this for eight months, he also found that that wearing a mask and hoping to breathe while doing so was nearly impossible. He had managed to find one of better material, which took longer than he wanted to say but he eventually found one. He's had to buy nine new pairs of shoes though. So that sucked. As was avoiding the questions.

He turned roughly, trying to gain his lost speed in the open alley. He had almost made it to the ladder when somebody barreled into him.

"You are a problem child!"

Midoriya winced, the others knees digging in his shoulder blades and his arms were tied without care behind his back.

"Haha, you caught me. Good job! How about we do this again next week, yeah?"

The pro hero laughed shortly, "No. You are going to a station. We've been through this, Midorikari."  
Izuku nodded, mind running on how he'd get out this time. Erasure head, the hero that's taken to tracking him down for the past month, had learned to prevent every way he had come up with yet.

He took his push knifes, which was annoying since he always had to make new ones. His arm guards, which carried a pin. A well as his utility pouch which carried the flash bangs. This hero was pissing him off.

But also made him happy, because he had reached a point where he escaped the police enough times for them to call in a pro hero. He had never thought that he would reach a level when they had to call in Erasure head of all people. Really, he was flattered by their efforts.

"Hey, do you know how hard it is to make those?"

The hero laughed, putting the push knifes into his own pocket. "Maybe you should stop then. Find a new hobby."

Izuku grit his teeth at the sirens. The tires squealed to a stop at the end of the road. He let out a breath when the hero got off him. His mind came to one last resort and he didn't want to do it.

But going to a police station sounded much worse.

He struggled for a minute, making sure not to move around too much. By the pinch in his hand, he found the right angle. His lip found home between his teeth and he bit. Hard.

…That hurt.

He took long, silent breaths as tears sprang to his eyes. He pulled his newly mangled hand out of the cuff. He froze at the footsteps that came up to him. He gave a small wince, looking up and met the eyes of a greatly amused police officer.

At least, he thought it was amusement. He didn't know what else it would be.

"Midorikari, small world. What are you doing around here?"

Yup, definitely amused.

Izuku nodded, pursing his lips. The cop laughed and he mentally groaned. He couldn't end like this. Not after everything and by some stupid joke.

"You ready kid?"

Izuku glared lightly at the officer before it dropped. His hand curled around an electronic flasher and he pulled it out, hiding another wince.

"I'm really sorry, Naomasa."

He activated it, pushing the small button and threw it weakly at the gravel next to him. His eyes shut tightly, already feeling sorry for the police officers and hero. The light that was flashing was bright and fast, he could still see it from behind his eyelids. He jumped to his feet, feeling along the wall and managed not to cry when his thumb hit bricks harshly. Finding the ladder, he climbed it as quick as he could.

The flasher only lasted thirty seconds.

The ladder wasn't the largest, but he found himself praying that he wouldn't fall to his death. Once he came to the roof, he opened his eyes. The city lights were pretty. He screamed.

Holy shit, his hand hurt like a mother –

Deeps breaths. Izuku ripped his bandana off, tying his thumb to his hand so it didn't move limply. He pulled the hood back up and ran across the roof tops. He made sure to jump at the right time. Six foot jumps took thought, timing and practice to land.

Lots and lots of practice.

All the while, the cuffs were still stuck on one wrist and the sound that followed was grating on his nerves.

Once he came across the same street that would take him back to the orphanage, he climbed down a ladder, one handed. It was hard. He slipped several times. His mind was racing and he could hear the sirens once more. Looked like the flasher stopped and they recovered. It was nice to know that they worked for what he made them for.

Maybe he should make them last longer though?

The teen willed away tears, shouldering the dumpster to move a couple inches before grabbing his backpack. He unzipped it with his teeth. He looked at the hoody inside and what he was wearing. Midoriya searched the sky pleadingly for any possible help but it fell short.

"Fuck!"

This was so stupid. Stupid Erasure Head. Stupid cops. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

He carefully took off the hoody he was wearing and cursed again. His eyes caught sight of the massive road rash along his stomach. That would explain why it hurt so bad. The chain mail had been grating short for a while and the hoody was rather thread bare. You could only be friends with a wall and gravel for so long it seemed.

He had no idea how he was supposed to do this.

In the end, the chainmail stayed on and he pulled the clean hoody on over it. The jeans went over the leather and he shuffled home barefoot. He couldn't climb the tree. Izuku was glad that everybody was asleep. He had been forced to pick the door open a couple times but he didn't particularly like doing it.

Once he was in his room, he took the bandana off and inspected his hand. It was… about what you'd expect. A bit redder, bruised and swollen. It was huge. A small part of him was disgusted. The cuffs had dug into the skin and it had been bleeding apparently.

Midoriya would like nothing more than to sleep but found himself hunched over his laptop. There was no way he'd be able to go to the hospital. Not with the amount of bruises and crap he had. He wasn't stable enough to move homes again. That he knew for sure.

So, how to treat a broken thumb it is. Then how to make plaster. And so forth.

That night, he was only able to put it in a compression brace. He spent a whole two hours carefully disconnecting the chainmail down his chest before pulling it off. He shuffled out of his jeans – both of them – before putting on a pair of sweats.

He downed four pain pills dry and laid down. It took several minutes for his mind to calm down enough for him to go to sleep.

XXX

It took six weeks for a broken thumb to heal but honestly, the huge ass road rash he had across his stomach was hurting more than his finger. The school year was ending in a couple days and he was thankful.

However, he still hadn't picked a school for next year. The matrons were giving him until the end of the month to pick one, or he'd just go to the local one. To be frank, he couldn't care less about which high school he goes to.

Instead, despite his broken thumb and downing pain killers like candy, he spent every night patrolling the streets and the weekends at the trash yard. He found himself avoiding the calendar. He only knew the date because of school work.

Today was June twenty-ninth. He knew that. Midoriya was looking forward to the day the little numbers didn't mock him. They left a bitter taste in his mouth.

The bags under his eyes were getting deeper, he noticed. Waking up in a cold sweat whenever he did manage to get some sleep. They weren't nightmares, never were but memories. Always memories.

The fork pushed his food around uselessly. He really wasn't hungry. He wasn't sure when it was the last time he was.

"Are you doing ok, Midoriya? We're getting worried."

All the kids went to the same grade school. Most of them were at a sleepover. Midoriya thought the parents hadn't thought it out very well. Inviting the entire class for a sleepover. Twenty or so kids? Yeah, crazy.

Midoriya hummed in answer before standing up. " 'm not hungry. Sorry."

"Midoriya."

He gave the woman a smile but didn't respond. He went up to his room. He looked around his room blankly, finding it to be nicer than the one he had when his mom was alive. He immediately felt guilty for the thought.

Midoriya pulled the glove off of his hand, letting it breath for a bit before he would have to put it back on later that night. He opened his laptop. He checked the news feed before dinking around on a hero page. After twenty or so minutes, he found that it wasn't doing very good of a job distracting him.

Instead, he plugged in his flash-drive and opened the one of the files. _Analysis 2.0._

When he first started the books originally, years ago, he focused solely on heroes. Now he broadened his studies. Heroes, villains, cops and laws. How a fight could change if one person did something different. If somebody went left instead of right. He journaled.

He quickly got used to typing with one hand. It was slower, but he didn't chicken peck.

That always annoyed him.

He typed the date and wrote about what had happened the previous night. Nothing much, stopped a couple of purse thieves but he came across a super cool memoir of his name. It made him happy that the locals were acknowledging him.

He saved it, an hour later and ejected the flash-drive before locking it in the safe box. It was after eleven, so everybody would be getting to sleep now. He changed into his uniform.

He had replaced some of the mail, since it was thinning, and added a zipper through the chest so it was easier to get on and off. His hoody also got replaced. He ended up raiding his knife supply once more.

It ended up being a calm night, which he was grateful for. His feet thumped against the building as he sat on a roof. His mask was pooled at his neck and he sipped on an Icee that a shop owner gave him in thanks for stopping a robber.

He found it almost funny how often those were attempted. It hadn't been working out well for them lately, much to his satisfaction.

He made sure to not show his surprise when somebody came up behind him.

"Midorikari, I've been looking for you."

The voice was eerie but young. Midoriya stood, watching the empty cup fall into the open dumpster down below. He pulled his mask up before he turned.

"And why would you be doing that?"

The older teen looked sick. He was pale, chalky and his skin seemed cracked. He wore an old black hoody and shoes similar to his own but black. He laughed and again, it sounded like he was sick. Both mentally and physically.

"I've heard all about you."

Izuku, or Midorikari, rose a brow. "Lots of people hear about me. Why are you looking for me?"  
He didn't work underground. Not anymore and he wouldn't get involved in anything if he could help it. The other continued, ignoring his comment.

"People really like you, you know. Saving old ladies purses, stopping robberies. Protecting this little old city. Hell, you've even stopped a murder. You're a little hero."

He didn't show his unease. He didn't talk, only listening. Midoriya was prepared to run if he needed to.

The other tsked. His voice turned stringier, like he was whining.

"But not everybody thinks that. I'm sure you know. You've had the police and pros on your tail for months. But you're smart. You don't get caught."

Ha, that was funny. He got caught, yes, but he escaped. He always escaped.

"But it'll end one day. You'll get caught. You'll go to prison and all your efforts will go down the drain. I can help you."

Midoriya startled, "What?"

The others eyes glinted, "Oh, my. I never introduced myself, how rude! My name is Tomura Shigaraki. I work in the league. The League of Villains."

Izukus stomach dropped and sweat broke out his temple. The other stepped closer.

"I want you to work for me, little hero."

Midorikari met red eyes. His voice firm. "I'm not a villain."

The other laughed, voice taunting. "But you aren't really a hero. Are you?"

Midoriya straightened but didn't respond. The other patted his shoulder and with a jolt, he felt the wind caress his skin. He didn't have to look to know that the fabric and metal was gone.

The other merely smiled, offering a card delicately between two fingers. "Let me know when you've decided."

Midoriya knew a warning and he took the card, careful not to break eye contact or touch the other. The pale teen snorted, and the vigilante watched as somebody warped up to the roof.

They both disappeared, leaving Izuku alone. He let out a ragged breath, hand to his heart.

Hesitantly, he looked at the black card. The lettering was silver, metallic looking.

_46 Kyoto_

He pulled his mask back down roughly and wiped his face. He looked at the card for another moment, not tempted but wanting to know what the hell he was should do with it. What he was supposed to do with what had just happened.

The League of Villains?

That didn't sound good at all.

XXX

"Put the gun down."

Guns had been illegal for years. Ever since the hero system had come into play. The only people who could use them were heroes, the military and the government. Otherwise, the only way to get one was through the Black Market.

Midorikari had ran into a woman who was terrified. It happened a lot. Short story Short, she had escaped from a local jewelry store which was under a hostage situation. He came as soon as he could.

The woman laughed and the male snorted. Based on their trust, Midoriya wouldn't be surprised if they were married. They were wearing matching masks

"And why should I do that? I'm not surprised you showed up. But I was hoping for a hero. Life is just full of disappointments."

He learned not to be offended with statements and jabs like that. Midoriya rose his hands up non-threateningly. His voice stayed level, eyes on the criminals. He didn't look at the people who were shielding their heads in fear.

"I get that. Life sucks. I couldn't agree more. Why are you doing this?"

Through the womans mask, Midoriya could tell the woman was surprised. The male turned to him, gun still pointed at the people on the floor.

"Why am I doing this?"

Midorikari swallowed shortly. "No, why are you _both_ doing this? What happened?"

To his surprise, tears sprang to their eyes. The male stepped forward, waving the gun to make a point.

"What happened? Our lives were ruined! Ruined! We lost everything!"

Izuku swallowed, he had messed up. Instead of showing his unease, he nodded.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But -what are your names?"

The woman sniffed wetly. "You think we're that stupid?"

Izuku shook his head, "No, I don't. You're not stupid, I know that. I just want to know what to call you, that's all."

Midoriya knew this wouldn't end well no matter what. The woman who first told him what had happened had already called the police. They should be here at any moment. He just had to stall long enough for them to get here and prevent any casualties and get out of here himself.

The two thugs glanced at each other.

"Zetsubo."

Izuku licked his lips. Despair. That sounded tragic.

He nodded, "Kay, I'm Midorikari. How about we talk about this, Zetsubo? Just put the gun down. Leave these people out of it. You can tell me what happened. Just us."

They hesitated for a minute, something resembling clarity entering their eyes and they lowered their weapons for a moment. Midoriya let out a breath, the people on the floor openly sobbing in relief.

There was the familiar sound of police sirens.

Izuku cursed, stomach coming up to his throat as the weapons were raised again. The rifle and the handgun were shaking.

"This is police! We have the building surrounded!"

The two were panicking and Izuku tried to defuse the situation before it got out of hand. Fast.

"Hey – hey, Zetsubo. Don't listen to them. Look at me. Look at me."

Their eyes were wild their guns were aiming at everything and everyone. He pulled his mask down.

"Look at me!"

They looked, tears falling down the masks and he took a quick breath.

"Put your guns down. If you walk out willingly, nobody will get hurt. Your time will be shorter, there's nothing you can do. Put them down."

The woman let out a scream of frustration and the teens heart pounded. They were calm before. Frustrated before. Now they were desperate.

People do stupid things when they were desperate. He knew that very well.

"Just put them down and nobody will get hurt."

"Arms up!"

The doors swung open and shots were fired. Midorikari jumped.

The world went dark.


	4. I'm not bitter

Before Izuku was completely awake, he heard beeping. It was similar to dreaming about the ringing of an alarm before you had school but much, much worse. The smell of purity infected his senses and it made him gag. A hospital. Again. Didn't he promise himself to never go in one again?

Green eyes opened. He winced. How was he not dead? Midoriya was pretty positive that he was supposed to be dead. He licked his lips, looking around in mild confusion.

The door opened.

Izuku let out a groan of frustration, his head falling back onto the pillow with a thud. Fuck his life.

"Midorikari."

He let out an aggravated breath, not looking away from the ceiling. Of course all this ended when he saved someone's life. Of fucking course. What better way to go out then like that? Like this?

The chair slid to the bed with a scrape. It hurt his ears.

"Midoriya."

He cursed, already annoyed with how this conversation was going. "What, Tsukauchi? You won. What else do you want? Just throw me in jail already. Ten years minimum by law."

The other let out a sigh, "I can't do that."

"Why the hell not?" he snarled.

The other didn't answer for a moment. When he did, his voice was almost sad. "You're just a kid. You're not even sixteen."

Izukus eyes filled with self-hate. The tears were stubborn and insistent but he didn't let them fall.

"You already knew this."

The cop rubbed his eyes. This wasn't how he thought this was going to go. The kid -seriously. Sometimes he didn't like the system. It wasn't fair. Not always.

He opened the file he gathered on the kid.

"Midoriya Izuku, age fifteen. Your birthday's July fifteenth. Your parents divorced when you were young and your mother passed away a year ago. Almost to the day."

He heard the boy swallow. "How long have I been out?"

He answered as flat as he could. "You've been asleep for a week. It's July seventeenth."

Izuku could feel his lip tremble and his eyes burned. The other continued.

"You were shot three times. We had to break your thumb again. It was healing wrong."

Tsukauchi didn't like the silence. But he didn't blame the kid. He sighed once more and scratched his head. He looked back at the teen who wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Komi-san has been worried. She didn't know you were doing hero work."

Izuku finally looked at him. He almost, almost wished that the other didn't.

"Hero work? You're kidding. Of course she doesn't know. I'm not that stupid."

The cop shrugged. "I guess we have different opinions on what a hero is."

The teen glared at him before turning away. He sighed, a small part of him relieved. Looking at the kid was painful, it was hard to believe that he was Midorikari. A vigilante, _the_ vigilante, who's been doing more in his part of the city then the force and pros. Hard to believe that a fifteen year old, fourteen year old, who was quirkless on top of everything else, could step up when nobody else would.

"You don't have a quirk."

The kid didn't so much as twitch in acknowledgement.

"I'm not throwing you in jail. You're too young and I don't like the idea of putting you in juvie. You've done too much good for that."

The teen shook his head, at what? The elder didn't know. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know. He pulled out another piece of paper, looking at it when he spoke.

"We can't let you continue, not as you have been. But we don't want your talent and heart to go to waste – "

"I don't have a heart."

Tsukauchis brows furrowed, even with his quirk, he couldn't tell if he was kidding or not.

"So, we want to offer you a scholarship to UA. It would be a recommendation through myself and backed up by Pro Hero Eraser Head."

The kids eyes glassed over and he looked so put off it pained the cop. He hadn't heard the story from the kid but he had read the files. He had lived a hard life and seemed to expect the worst. He couldn't say it was a bad habit. It was just hard to see the light go out of a kid that young.

"I don't have a quirk."

Naomasa nodded, handing the paper to the teen.

"No, but you are a hero. We want to see you go far. We all do."

Izuku's eyes scanned the paper, not actually reading it.

"I can't."

The cop nodded in understanding. He didn't really understand though. "Why not?"

Izuku glanced at him. He seemed to have several reasons but he only said one.

"It's too far. It's four prefectures away. Trains are expensive."

Tsukauchi laughed lightly. He really shouldn't say this until the kid agreed but he knew the other wouldn't accept without a push. Without support.

"Ah, there is somebody who is willing to be your guardian. They live near the school."

The kids eyes went blank and Naomasa almost went to get a nurse. That wasn't normal. It disappeared as soon as it appeared.

"Who?"

He let out a relieved breath, hoping the other wouldn't be mad at him. Not when the hero actually liked the kid.

"His name is Aizawa Shouta."

Midoriyas eyebrows went to his hairline. "Erasure Head wants to adopt me?"

He could understand the disbelief. But the kid really shouldn't know the heroes real name. It was highly confidential. The question of how the other knew that was at the tip of his tongue but he held back.

"Yes."

The other looked at him with disbelief for a moment before he began to laugh. Only to wince, arms curling across his torso.

"Now that you're awake, the doctors will be able to do some more testing. Somebody will be stopping by tomorrow. Recovery Girls quirk is strong, she'll be able to heal you right up."

His eyes seemed to light up for a moment, "Recovery Girl is coming here?"

The cop forced a grin back. "Yes. But I don't think she'll be happy with you."

The other looked confused for a moment and it honestly looked adorable but then he paled. Yes, turning your body into a punching bag willingly would no doubt annoy any doctor.

"Will you take it? The scholarship? Nobody is pressing charges and the entire force is willing to sweep this all under the rug."

Disbelief sparkled in the others eyes and he looked back at the ceiling. Naomasa couldn't stop his foot from tapping.

"But -I -I -What I did was illegal. What -I -What I did was wrong."

"Do you regret it?"

The other glanced at him before turning away. His voice was quiet. "No."

He let out a relieved breath. He thought about how to phrase what he wanted to say.

"Being a hero isn't always easy, you know. Neither is being a police officer. We all do things we don't always like. But…sometimes things aren't always black and white. The line between good and evil, good or bad, isn't clear. Sometimes you have to go with your heart. That's what makes a hero a hero.

"You did it with good intentions, Midoriya. I believe that's what makes you a hero. We want to help you. You can help a lot of people. You've inspired people. I know that. People talk about you all over the city. You've done good, kid."

The teen took a shaky breath before gnawing on his lip. Naomasa caught a glint of pain in the others eyes before they shut. He wanted to ask so many questions but he refrained.

"I – fine. Ok."

His mothers words rang in his ears before he pushed it away. Izuku turned to the cop who looked happy and Midoriya was honestly so confused. But if Naomasa was willing to do this for him, he could give the other something as well.

"But -somebody. Somebody approached me. He said he was involved in an organization called the League of Villains. He tried to get me to join him."

The cop looked confused before he paled, pulling out a notebook. "Tell me everything you know."

Midoriya nodded, "It's really not a lot. He said his name was Tomura Shigaraki. He had this quirk that burned away anything he touched. I – I don't think he could be older than twenty. He looked sick. He wore a severed hand like a mask. I think it was real…"

The police force began stake outs at 49 Kyoko street that night.

XXX

It was halfway through summer vacation when he stood in front of an apartment building with Naomasa standing next to him. Izuku had nothing but his backpack and two boxes. The other was holding one and he grinned at the teen.

"Isn't this exciting?"

Izuku snorted, small smile on his face. He had seen the other a lot over the past week. Naomasa was…kind. Funny. Almost what he would have thought a father would be like if he thought about it hard.

He didn't like thinking about it.

He shifted the box, glad that he was able to use both hands normally. His feet felt stuck, however. It took a few more minutes for the other to convince him to follow him. He followed silently, only semi listening to the other talk.

It seemed crazy that Aizawa – freaking _Eraser Head_ – was going to adopt him. That he was going to UA. After everything. He sometimes pictured that this was all a dream and he will just wake up.

But he didn't know how much of it was part of the nightmare, if that was true. How much of it was the dream. He hoped that if it was true – a dream, anyway – then he would wake up with his mother again.

It was a hard pill to swallow. The bitter truth.

"And here we are."

Midoriya inhaled sharply, looking emptily at the door. The door opened and, suddenly feeling sick, looked down at the box. It was a very pretty shade of brown…

"Naomasa. Child."

He heard a sigh, but he didn't know whose it was. They were talking but he only heard buzzing. Should he be worried about that?

"Midoriya?"

He flinched, turning away from the hand that came to his shoulder. The officer didn't show any sadness from the motion.

"Let's go inside."

He shifted his grip on the box and nodded. He followed the other, hesitating before kicking the door softly shut behind him. He swallowed looking between the two who turned to him. Erasure Head spoke. Midoriya couldn't help but think the man looked tired.

"Your room is the first on the right. Bathrooms on the left. Why don't you go look at it."

Not a question…

He went without a word. Naomasa already dropped one of the boxes here. His ears picked up more talking and he shut his own door. He looked at the lock for a solid minute before turning. He didn't want to give his new guardian any thoughts that he was hiding something from him.

He pulled out his phone and put the ear phones in. It was new, something he had only had for a few days. It was a joint gift from some of the cops and he honestly appreciated it.

He was still confused as hell though.

He rubbed his hair furiously, blinking away tears before fixing his beanie. He hands fell on the joggers he was wearing. He wiped his mouth and took a deep breath.

The room. His room. He could do this. And not panic. Easy.

He set the music a little higher, ignoring the warning that popped up on the device. He set to work. The closet had hangers, luckily. So, he hung up what needed to be, folding the rest before placing them in the simple dresser. There really wasn't a lot to it. The bed already had sheets and a light green comforter.

He placed his lock box under the bed, his laptop on the desk. He hung his empty backpack on the back of the door. That was quick.

No personal touches really showed in the room. He didn't know what really counted as personal in the first place. The cops had taken his costume, not that he was surprised. He didn't bring any weapons. Save for the staff, but that was sitting uselessly in the closet. The rest of his vigilante stuff was at the shed at the beach.

Most everything else was in the lockbox. But that was all information on USBs and flash drives.

He carefully sat on the bed. It was softer then he would have thought. It would take some getting used to.

He turned the music off, taking the headphones out and let his face fall into his hands.

He opened his phone again, looking at the time.

Midoriya rubbed his eyebrow, walking to the door and where he had left the other two. He was thirsty…

Somebody else was here.

The man was tall, almost freakishly so. Blond and had blue eyes. The suit was huge and quite frankly, tacky. He looked sick and if it wasn't for his frame, he would have looked a lot like somebody –

"No way."

His voice broke the other three out of their conversation. He didn't know what they were thinking about -didn't care- his eyes were stuck on the mans who he highly suspected was All Might.

The man's eyes widened and a look of panic entered his eyes. He probably wasn't supposed to know…whatever this was. Nope. He didn't even want to.

Midoriya ignored the other twos calls, turning placing his palms pointedly over his ears and walked back into the room. His room. He faceplanted.

His thoughts turned to the one time he had seen All Might in person.

It was maybe a week or two into the debut of his short career underground. The fight had been terrifying. All Might and who…whoever the other person was. They both just dropped. All Might was victorious. He always was. But in the dark alley he was in, he knew something was wrong.

He was only able to bring himself to watch a couple more news sightings on All Might because he knew. All Might was sick. He had changed. Something had gone wrong and nobody else knew. He hadn't done anything. He wasn't -he wasn't a hero. He couldn't do anything but he was just a ten year old kid who knew that Japans greatest hero was sick.

Those nightmares were the last time his mother held him. Before the hospital. Before she died.

" – _bathrooms on the left. – "_

Midoriya stood, palm covering his mouth and ran. He ran into somebody, he didn't know who, but he barely making it into the room before he threw up. Hands felt the glass of the toilet but he wasn't here. Colors danced in his eyes but he could only remember.

It made him sick.

Somebody patted his back and he threw himself away from the touch. Midoriya winced as his shoulder blades hit the bathtub roughly. He opened his eyes, closing them tightly when he met blue. Colors flashed again and he kneeled over the toilet. Again.

_He was stupid. His mother would be worried and he was so stupid. It was late and he was tired. He had school tomorrow. He knew he shouldn't have come this far from home. But - he really wanted to get his mom something for her birthday. The necklace was perfect. But a lot of money. _

_He had done the job though. Just a transfer of goods. He didn't know what it was. It wasn't drugs, he knew that. He knew the smell enough given where he lived. He assumed it was money. He was almost to the train station when a loud -it was so loud and his ears rang- bang came from only down the street. _

_He could only watch in horror as the building only across the street fell. And All Might – oh god, it was All Might – flew through the building. And not in a good way. _

_Despite himself, despite logic, he walked closer, staying close to the walls. _

"_This is the end, All Might."_

_His eyebrows scrunched. Was – was this person trying to kill All Might? That was crazy! Why would – _

"_No, it is yours, All for One."_

_The man laughed, a terrifying sound that wracked storms down a small spine. _

"_Nana certainly found a determined one. Did I hit a nerve? Do you not like me talking about your weak, pathetic predecessor? Did it hurt when you found her? Strung up on that wire? She hung very well, such a pretty symbol. A symbol to you. Symbol of Peace."_

_"Shut up!" _

_He held his hands tightly over his mouth to stifle his sobs. His eyes were wide, green darker with tears and seemed to glow in the dark. Neither noticed. _

_They punched and kicked. Buildings fell and glass broke. How did the man have so many quirks? It – it shouldn't be possible. A small seed of envy rooted in his stomach. He didn't have a quirk. How was it fair that the other man had so many? _

_The envy fell empty when All Might lay limp in a crater made to fit his body. He could feel his lips moving, muttering and he had to work on that, his hands pushed harder against his mouth. _

_Get up. Get up. Get up. __**Get up, All Might!**__ You need to get up! You need to get up! __**Get up!**_

_He keened, seeing the large hero stand. He was bleeding. Bad. That wasn't good. Based on where it was, it was were a lung was. But he couldn't be sure. Nevertheless, bleeding -that much- wasn't good. _

_All Mights fist reared back but the only other laughed. Midoriya didn't know how the other didn't see how mad the hero was. He had never seen All Might – any hero – that upset. _

_His eyes went blank, his heart stopped, when the villain dropped. Like a puppet master cutting the strings. It was…over? Just like that? _

_Smoke and dust covered the large empty area that used to house homes and businesses alike. Midoriya made sure to stay quiet, sirens could be heard and helicopters flew overhead. Izuku could only watch as the hero grimaced, blood falling down his chin and onto the already dirty and ripped suit. _

_His large armed wrapped around his stomach and he fell to his knees. Izuku made a move to step forward but froze, the hero faceplanting. His heart thudded in his ears and the only reason he wasn't coughing was because of the gas mask he was wearing. His eyes burned, everything and nothing in them as he stared at the hero. _

_All Might couldn't be dead. He couldn't. _

_He swallowed, seeing the police cars squeal to a stop. He needed to go. Now. He managed to turn around walking only a few steps. He picked up the officers terrified shouts for an EMT. _

_Coming to the end of the alley, he turned to watch All Might get lifted onto a stretcher as a cop – _shit, that was Naomasa_ – followed into the ambulance. _

_Izuku climbed the ladder, mind whirling. Two hours later, he climbed up the emergency stairwell and into his room. He changed robotically. Once he was in bed, he recognized he was crying. He stared blankly at the ceiling, not seeing the cracks but rather All Mights fallen form. _

_His last thought was on what he had heard. One for All. All for One. Were they different? Did he hear wrong? _

_It didn't matter anyway. Not when All Might may be dead._

_Since that night, his room was stripped of All Might and anything related. His hero was sick and there wasn't _anything_ he could do about it._

"Midoriya, how do you know that name?"

He bit his tongue roughly. The voice breaking him out of his memory, thankfully. But he still fucking muttered. He thought he had grown out of the habit. Green eyes opened blearily. He pushed down more bile when he saw how pink the toilet was. He hadn't had anything to eat today. It was just acid.

He turned, seeing the three males looking at him with the same expression. He turned back to the toilet, flushing it and watching it flush.

He didn't give a fuck anymore. They knew he was a vigilante. But they didn't know he worked in the dark for years. He didn't give a fuck anymore. He had nothing to lose anyway.

XXX

The tea was bland, but he was pretty sure it was just him. The other three were kind enough to let him take a breath before he talked. And he did.

The tea was disgusting. He wondered if Aizawa had honey.

"You were there?"

Midoriya nodded, looking into the glass and not at the one who had spoken. He could feel Naomasas nerves from here.

"Yeah. Trust me, if I could take it back I would."

Aizawa sighed, green eyes glanced at him before looking back.

"What were you involved in?"

He was smart, but Midoriya already knew that Eraser Head was. It wasn't anything new.

Izuku scratched his calf before answering. He sniffed.

"My mom worked two jobs. She had to quit one when I turned ten. But – we didn't always have a whole lot of money. Most of the time we didn't have enough."

Midoriya looked up, rubbing the bottom of his nose before he continued. He refrained from looking at Naomasa. And All Might. And Aizawa. The wall was interesting.

"I started doing these…jobs, when I was about nine? Maybe ten? I honestly don't remember. But all I know was that my dad stopped paying child support and my mom was getting thinner. I wanted to help.

"It wasn't that I was involved in villains or anything but – I did get into some pretty shady stuff. Well, that's a bit of a lie. Anyway, but – I was – I took this job. It was paying a lot and it was far but my moms birthday was coming up. I wanted to get her something nice. That meant money that we didn't have, or that I didn't have, so I snuck onto a train. Delivered what I needed to and – then you were there."

His eyes turned to All Mights, the sickly man who looked even paler as he listened. Midoriya couldn't feel guilty, the incident had caused him nightmares and changed his views on heroes and villains all together.

"The fight was pretty brutal, I admit. Having a front seat was…interesting. Bloody terrifying. Particularly since he beat you like a doll. I heard stuff, cried a bit and went home. Got the necklace for my mom, she loved it. Never saw her take it off…"

Midoriya shrugged, swallowing and looked away again. "Had nightmares for a few months and stopped looking you up on the internet. I thought you died, wouldn't have been surprised. But you were sick and nobody seemed to notice but I knew something was wrong. It was a lot for a kid to take in so I stopped looking into heroes. The end."

"Dear lord."

Midoriya drank the gross tea anyway and ignored Aizawas comment. He looked around the kitchen instead on the other three. This was awkward.

"How much did you hear?"

Midoriya turned back to the man. His voice was serious and Naomasa stepped up behind the blonde. Izuku rose a brow.

"How much am I allowed to know?"

The man seemed to droop, eyes glazing over as he held a hand over his mouth. Izuku shifted in discomfort, he didn't need to offer the other any relief but – shit. He had even gone through the trouble of keeping the whole fight under wraps so the least he could do for the guy was talk. Right?

The beanie hit the table and hair was rubbed.

"Uh, I – I'm guessing these two already know something about…all this. So, I didn't really hear a lot. I mean, I was watching Japans greatest hero become a bouncy ball. Wow, tact, that exists. Ha." Midoriya winced, he needed to stay on track.

"Um, something about All for One, that's what you called the mummy guy. He referenced somebody called Nana and One for All. That's about it. My mind was in another place but – I mean I have thought about it. Pretty sure the guy had a base quirk that allowed him to steal others quirks. That's the only thing that makes sense. And I'm guessing that yours is called One for all. Your quirk, I mean. And I'm rambling. That's nice."

Aizawa looked about ready to have a stroke. And All Mights eyes were blown wide. Naomasa looked at him seriously.

"Have you told anyone about this?"

Izuku wasn't sure why – and he knew it was stupid – but it hurt to be asked that by the officer. He was smarter than that. He – god, did they think he would just tell everybody? Did the cop think that low of him?

He scoffed, eyes burning and he easily redirected the hurt to anger.

"No. I haven't told anybody about this. In case you haven't been able to tell, Naomasa, I've had other shit going on! It wasn't any of my business. I figured the fucking hero covered it all up for a reason. I thought you knew me better than that but – god. No, I didn't fucking tell anybody. And I don't plan to."

Midoriya stood, ignoring the other threes startled looks as his chair fell back. The door flew open and the teen slammed it behind him. His teeth ground together painfully and he jogged down the staircase before he found himself on a street. He ran.

Back in the apartment, the underground hero groaned.

"He is such a problem child."

He ignored Naomasas look. He didn't mean it in a bad way and the cop knew that. Aizawa palmed his eyes. He didn't regret taking the kid in. He wasn't much of a parental figure but he knew the other kid needed help. And he had potential he didn't see very often.

Aizawa shook his head at All Mights rambling. Yes, he agreed that it could have gone better but no, he didn't regret this.

He didn't think he would come to regret it if you were to ask him.


	5. Grounding? What grounding?

Midoriya hooked his feet under the ladder as he laid down on the roof of the train. It was going fast, he had to hold his beanie so it wouldn't fly away. The sky helped calm him.

The cloud looked like a bunny.

You know what else looked like a bunny? All Might.

Hell.

He groaned, the sound being lost to the speed of the machine. He could be dramatic, he knew, but he couldn't help but think that the officer had overstepped.

It wasn't like the two were best friends but he thought that the other understood him. At least a little bit. On some level. Maybe. But one thing concerning a pro-hero and it all shut down.

Pro heroes….

Midoriya knew that it really wasn't their fault. That it wasn't All Mights. But he felt he was allowed to feel hurt about what had just happened. Wasn't he?

Maybe not.

The train slowed and Izuku pulled his feet up before hopping off on the side opposite of the doors. He shoved his beanie back on and walked the familiar streets. Back into his hometown.

The smell calmed him, relaxing significantly. It was…good. To be back. It was good.

Izuku had promised himself that he would never visit his mom. It sounded harsh, yes, but he knew his mom would want him to move on. She didn't want to hold him back any more then she already had. Those were her own words.

Two months into the cancer treatments.

Midoriyas eyes fell on the headstone nearly an hour later. He felt his phone buzzing and he turned it off. He didn't want to talk to Naomasa right now.

Ever. But that may just be him overreacting, he mused.

"Hey, Mom."

He squatted, fingers brushing the stone. He wasn't surprised the urn was gone. Or the note. It was why he left them here. He didn't want to carry his mother around. She deserved her rest.

"It's kinda weird. Talking to a stone. You aren't even buried here. Cemetery plots are expensive." He winced, torso protesting the twist he took when his back leaned against the stone.

"I don't even know why I'm here. You wouldn't want me to be." He took a deep breath. "I miss you."

He was met with silence and his eyes fell on the sky again. He found himself doing that a lot. Looking up.

He faintly wondered if God existed.

If any afterlife was real, he had no doubts that his mother made it to heaven or some equivalent.

He shifted again, laying all the way down and watched the clouds drift. He could feel himself talk and made no move to stop.

"I got adopted, you know. Not that I'm replacing you. I doubt that it even matters now. I probably messed it all up already. Can you imagine that? Not even a full day and he already regrets it. Not that it's much of a surprise."

He tried to imagine what his mom would say to that but couldn't come up with anything. He inhaled, noting that the clouds seemed to be losing their shape.

"I met All Might. Again. If you knew that I had met him before, where I met him before, you'd kill me."

He waited.

"Guess that can't happen now. With you dead and all."

His eyes drifted shut. It was warm, particularly since he was wearing a hoody. The light breeze caressing his cheeks and forearms lulled him into sleep.

He was kicked awake and the moon was high. He blinked a few times, confused before he groaned. He stood, "Sorry."

The worker looked at him wearily before his flashlight shown on the headstone. Izuku waited.

"It's fine, kid."

Midoriya sent him a grateful look. "Thanks, I'll get out of your way."

The other didn't stop him, Midoriya had to climb the tall fence. He wondered what he was supposed to do now. He scratched his neck, pulling his phone out and turned it on. Might as well start there.

22 Missed Calls and 16 New Messages.

They were all from Naomasa. It was barely after one.

He took a deep breath, debating what he should do. Izuku closed his eyes, holding the phone to his ear and waited for the other to pick up.

"Midoriya! Thank god, are-are you ok? Where are you?"

Midoriya chewed on his cheeks as he bounced on the balls of his feet.

"I'm fine. Naomasa. I'm fine."

The other let out a breath and Izuku was too tired to think about what kind of sigh it was. Because people had different sighs, ok? Ballpark, he would guess it was a tired sigh.

"Where are you, Izuku?"

Midoriya stopped, all bodily functions stopping. The last person to call him Izuku had been his mothers doctor.

"Midoriya?"

He let out a low breath. The other didn't have that right to call him by his name. Particularly with the events of today. Even if he was overreacting, his feelings were still valid.

"Tsubani."

The other line was silent and Izuku looked up. The stars were easier to see here than in the city. He didn't realize how much he missed it until now.

"What are you doing all the way out there?"

Midoriya didn't miss a beat.

"Visiting my mom."

The other line stuttered for a minute before falling silent. Midoriya grunted.

"I'll call you tomorrow."

He hung up before he could hear what the other had to say and headed to the beach. His phone buzzed again and he turned it off. He would call the other tomorrow. Just as he said he would.

The shed got sandy while he was gone. That was his first thought. He sighed, rolling his sleeves down and grabbed the headlamp on the makeshift desk. After cleaning up a bit, he debated if he should sleep or not. He wasn't particularly tired. Not physically anyway.

So, what to do, what to do?

He started the fire, where a melting plate rested empty on the rack above.

The fire crackled and it was pretty. Through the small window, he could see the waves crashing. The smell of both the salt water and the wood burning. The small remnants of cut metal and how the temperature was leaning more on cold then otherwise.

His eyes drifted to the half open box in the corner where his extra suit was.

This felt like home, more than anything in the past year. Nobody could take that away from him.

His eyes shut and his breathing evened. He dreamt peacefully of nothing.

XXX

It was on the train ride home when he realized that he hadn't called the cop. He debated not to but realized that he wasn't that rude. Not all the time at least. His hood was over his beanie, headphones in. His ears had gotten cold.

He made sure his hold on the phone was tight as he pulled it up and pushed call. It was barely back in his pocket when the other answered.

"Midoriya!"

"Naomasa."

"Kid, you are going to give me gray hair."

His mom had gray hair…

"Just wanted to let you know I'm heading back."

"What? It-it's really loud. Where are you?"

Izuku looked around, mild humor entering his voice.

"On the train."

The cop ahhed. "Oh, why is it so loud in the train?"

Midoriya snorted, "Not in the train, on the train."

The longer the silence fell, the bigger Midoriyas smile grew.

"You are on a train."

Midoriya hummed in affirmation.

"How!?"

Izuku curled his toes tighter around the ladder.

"Magic."

The cop groaned and Midoriya scoffed lightly.

"I'll let you know when I get closer."

"How far out are you?"

Midoriya lifted his head with difficulty.

"Uh, I think I'm passing Makiji. Not positive -Nope, that was Makiji."

The other let out another groan before he hung up. Midoriya blinked in mild surprise before his music rang again.

His eyes drifted shut for the remaining ride.

Twenty minutes later, Izuku hopped off again and just as he was about to walk around the front, he looked up to an unamused officer. He grabbed the hand offered and climbed out of the pit, not looking at the other. He sniffed.

"So, how do you ride a train going 100 miles an hour?"

Izuku pulled his hair, not answering for a moment. He sighed, pointing at the ladder that he had hopped off of. Naomasa rose an eyebrow.

"You held on the whole time?"

Izuku shook his head. "No, I laid down. Hooked my feet through the steps."

The officer took a breath before shaking his head. "You're crazy kid."

Midoriya shrugged, toeing the ground and ignored his stomach. He hadn't eaten since he first got out of the hospital two days ago.

The officer heard, looking almost pained. "Did you eat anything?"

Izuku shrugged. The other didn't move for a minute but when he did, Izuku followed without a word. They came to a police car.

"I'm not taking you to jail, Midoriya. I'm technically on the clock right now."

That didn't assure the teen. At all. And he tried to push down the guilt. He didn't need to feel guilty, damnit.

They drove up to a family restaurant. Izuku followed silently. Izuku wasn't suspicious when they were seated at a four person table. He should have been.

"Glad you could join us, Aizawa."

The man grunted, somehow looking more tired than the last time the teen saw him.

"Hi! What can I get started for you today?"

Naomasa ordered without looking at the menu and the pro hero followed. Izuku didn't even get a menu.

"You guys have Katsudon?"

The peppy girl nodded, writing it down before walking off.

"You like Katsudon?"

Midoriya opened his straw, bunching it up before getting some water and watched as the worm extended.

"…Yes."

Naomasa smiled awkwardly and Aizawa snorted. Midoriya met his eyes briefly before turning back to his worm. He blinked when something hit him. It was another paper worm.

Aizawa turned to Tsukauchi before he could ask.

"Did you find out how he rode the train?"

Naomasa groaned and Izuku didn't blush. He didn't.

"Yeah, he rode on top of it. His feet were hooked on the ladder."

Aizawa snorted, turning to the kid. "You know, riding a public transit without paying is illegal."

Midoriya wasn't impressed. He rebutted quickly.

"May 23."

Aizawa rose a brow, eyes sparked with somehow tired interest. "Come again?"

Midoriya took a sip of his water, pushing the paper worms to the side.

"May 23, you took part of a villain fight. You rode the train illegally between Masaki and Donoba. Again, the same night, but between Masufasu and Baniko. You rode it back. All without paying."

Naomasa gaped and Aizawa almost looked proud.

"That was hero work, kid."

Midoriya rose a challenging eyebrow. "Who says I wasn't?"

Naomasa coughed, "Were you?"

Midoriya leaned back, "No, but the point still stands."

Aizawa actually laughed over the officers grumbles. "And that is?"

Midoriya hummed, looking at the food set in front of him happily. He grabbed his fork, stabbing food on it before he answered.

"As much as I'd love to talk politics with a pro hero, you in particular, I'm really hungry."

Aizawa hid his grin by taking a bite of his own food. Naomasa started explaining the money cycle of Japan and how it was all important people paid their own shares. Midoriya's question of if he actually believed that 'BS', caused the cop to fall short.

Shouta managed to not choke with difficulty. He eyed the kid. Yes, he was troubled and he knew he'll probably cause problems but –

Midoriya was a good kid. He just got dealt terrible cards. He reminded him of someone else he knew.

XXX

It was two days later when Midoriya couldn't help it. Watching the other try and cook was painful.

"Do you know how to make yakitori?"

Aizawa sent him a glare. "Yes, I do."

Midoriya sent a doubtful look. Honestly, it actually hurt to watch the other. He was butchering it…

"Can I help?"

Aizawa stilled over the oven and Midoriya bit his tongue, almost folding into himself. Luckily, the man only took a deep breath and sat down next to him without a word. "Fine."

Midoriya waited a moment before he stood, hesitantly making his way to the stove. He looked at the chicken. It was burnt.

"There's more in the freezer."

Izuku was sad to be able to say that he could read the disappointment in the mans voice. He sighed, playing with the meat.

"How do you feel about gyudon? It would be quicker."

Aizawa grunted, folding his arms and hiding his head. Izuku rolled his eyes. Just by staying with the man for a couple days showed him that the man could be sensitive to certain subjects. He didn't think many noticed, often playing the card he was tired.

"Do whatever."

Midoriya nodded, throwing the meat into the trash before pulling out some beef. He pulled what else he would need from the fridge. He glanced at Aizawa as he struggled to reach the sake from the top shelf. He pursed his lips, quietly climbing onto the counter before pulling it down. He let out a sound of victory.

He stilled, hearing a laugh.

Green eyes were wider than normal as he watched him mild mortification as the others shoulders shook. Honestly, the man was wearing a pink sweatshirt that he swore he stole from a friend and wasn't his. His hair was in a messy ponytail and he shouldn't be as intimidating as he was right now.

"You're laughing at me."

Aizawa shook his head, lifting it from his arms. "No. I'm not."

You could hear the laughter in his voice and his shoulders were still shaking. Midoriya scowled, knowing it looked more like a pout and hopped off the counter. He began cooking, not looking at the man who was very rude.

"Why don't you like yakitori?"

Izuku stilled. The question was asked minutes later. The food only had to simmer as he got out the rice cooker. He swallowed.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Izuku shrugged, measuring the rice. "It was my moms favorite food. That's why watching you mess it up so bad was painful."

Aizawa thankfully didn't apologize. "I deserved that. I'm guessing you learned how to cook from her."

Izuku knew he was going to regret whatever came out of his mouth.

"I'm guessing you didn't."

The man made a non committal grunt. "No. She died when I was a kid. Both my parents. It's how my quirk manifested. I grew up in an orphanage."

Izuku tasted blood and he turned. He hated it when people said it to him so he wouldn't apologize. "That sucks."

Aizawa shrugged, yawning. He looked like he didn't care very much and Midoriya wasn't sure if it was real or an act.

"I really don't remember them. But yes, it does suck."

Midoriya watched him for a moment before turning and plating the food. He set it in front of the man as well as a fork. He ate a small bite, not being able to help wanting to know what the other thought.

The stubbled chin smirked. "It's good."

Midoriya ate a bigger bite before turning and getting two glasses of water. He gave the man his own and ignored the eyes watching him. He was now expecting a 'talk.'

"We don't have to if you don't want to."

He cursed, looking up. The man scoffed, taking another bite. Izuku was surprised to see it almost gone.

"No, I'm not a mind reader. Yes, you were muttering."

Midoriya's mind blanked. "Damnit."

Aizawa snorted, "It's fine. Everybody has their quirks."

Izukus fork froze and the only thing he knew was pain. He slowly looked up at the man who was frozen as well. The tired man set his fork down and wiped his mouth with the napkin.

"I am so sorry."

Izuku groaned, "That was so bad."

"I know."

Midoriya felt a smile creep onto his face reguardless, starting to laugh. Yes, that type of joke used to hurt him but he accepted his quirkless state. Maybe even appreciated it, he just knew he didn't care much on the matter anymore.

Hearing somebody joke openly about it, not even meaning to, and then apologize for it wasn't something he had ever seen. Or heard, before. It only made it funnier how the man looked so disappointed in himself.

"It wasn't that funny."

Midoriya gave the other a look. "I disagree."

Aizawa rose an eyebrow, not looking at him. "Do you, now?"

Izuku hummed, "Yes. And you don't need to be sorry. It's fine. Just- I don't know. It was pretty funny."

Aizawa glanced at him and didn't say anything. Midoriya slowed, wondering if he said something wrong. He finished eating, the only way he would know was if the other said something to him.

He put his dishes in the sink. "I can do these, you know. You probably want to take a nap since you're going back to work later tonight."

Aizawa looked at him through narrowed eyes. Midoriya stood his ground.

"I can do them."

Midoriya held his hands up in surrender and backed away. "Ok."

He didn't leave, sitting on the stool he claimed as his own before he cooked. He watched the other work, debating if he should say something. The other was wanting to talk, he knew, before his muttering shut him down.

What could he possibly want to talk about?

His fingers tapped on the countertop. Midoriya scratched his neck before deciding to screw it.

"Sometimes I wish I don't remember my own dad. I'm kinda jealous of you, which is really messed up but I won't lie. He was cheating on my mom for a couple years before he filed for divorce. The only reason she stayed with the bastard was because she couldn't support the both of us at the time."

Aizawa's motions didn't stop but Izuku knew he was listening. He continued.

"He walked out when I was seven, I think? I try not to think about it too much. His last words for me was that I was a useless son. Since I didn't have a quirk. He said he hadn't loved me in years. Then he was gone."

Aizawa slowed in his dish washing. Midoriya's eyes narrowed, there was something he said, then, that struck the other. He could only guess what it was. He continued.

"So, while I'm jealous that you don't remember your dad, it sucks that you don't remember your mom. We ended up moving a couple months after they divorced and she lost her job. We moved to west Tsubani. Which, I'm sure you are aware, is an honest to Kami shit hole.

"But I loved her. I didn't get to see her a whole lot. She took on two jobs for a few years before she was fired from one. She started working 24/7 and the only time I saw her was when she was sleeping. On occasion, we would get to eat dinner together. We would cook and usually take a walk after. But, she was the best friend I ever had."

He nodded, not as sad as he thought he would be talking about it. Granted, he was sad. But he wasn't bawling. Progress? Hopefully.

Midoriya yawned, "So yeah, it sucks losing your parents. Hate that it happens but what can you do…"

Aizawa was looking at him like he was crazy and he was pretty sure he wasn't. But if he was, at this point he wouldn't be surprised.

He shrugged. What can you do?

"Have you ever been to therapy?"

Izuku snorted, looking at him in mild surprise.

"No. Have you?"

Aizawa sent him a short grin. "Touché."

Izuku grinned back, fingers maintaining their rhythmic tapping. It was a good night and the air felt less tense from then on.

XXX

"If you're going to keep up your hero work, I'd rather you do it with my knowledge and not in the middle of the night."

Izuku froze mid pour of his cereal. He forced a laugh, unconsciously holding his shoulder as he turned. "I totally stopped. I don't know what you're talking about..?"

Aizawa merely finished pulling his sweater down. "Really, kid, if you're gonna do it just ask. You can come with me tonight."

Izukus eyes sparkled, "Seriously?"

The hero looked minorly uncomfortable. "I'd lose both my jobs if we're caught but there's only a week before school starts. This is all on the condition that you'll stop once school starts. You need to promise me this, Midoriya."

Midoriya closed his mouth, putting the cereal back and getting the milk and a spoon. He had to think about this for a minute. Honestly, his best option was to agree to this. The other could easily stop him or try to. Izuku would find a way around it if he really needed to.

But working with _Eraser Head_? In an unofficial apprenticeship for even a week? That was crazy! Izuku didn't know how Aizawa would be as a teacher, but he knew it wouldn't be easy. It would be worth it.

Totally worth it.

He nodded, trying not to screech in sudden happiness. "Deal."

Aizawa snorted, stealing the bowl from the teen. Midoriya let it happen, unfortunately used to this.

"Your eyes are giving you away. You can scream if you want, just keep it short."

Izuku shuffled on his feet, screaming into his arms before they dropped. He adjusted his shirt and nodded. "I'm good."

Aizawa chuckled.


	6. This is not going as planned

*AN at bottom*

Surprisingly, Aizawa was the one who had to wake Izuku up on the first day of school. He would be going in early and knew that if he didn't wake the teen up he wouldn't make it in on time. His mouth twitched fondly when the teen swatted his hands away with a groan.

He sniffed, holding up his secret weapon and pulled the trigger.

Izuku predictably screeched, rolling off the bed spluttering. Aizawa chuckled darkly.

"The hell, Erasure!"

He sprayed the teen again, laughing at the unamused eyes that greeted him.

"No swearing under my roof."

Izuku opened his mouth to retort but closed it when he was sprayed again. Aizawa nodded, turning. "School starts in an hour. Don't be late."

By the time Aizawa made it to the front door, he heard the teen slip in the shower. He shook his head in amusement.

That was the third time it happened.

As he made his way to his bike, he knew this year was bound to be interesting. Midoriya's reaction should be amusing. When he had taken the kid to the school for the tests, he hadn't told him where he placed in his year. Or that he would be in his class.

Yes, this will be interesting indeed.

XXX

Midoriya stood in front of the huge school. He managed not to shake. This – he couldn't believe this was actually happening. He knew that he was about to be late though, so he should hurry.

Move you stupid feet. Honestly.

He turned, hearing soft cursing behind him.

His eyes widened as he saw a panicking teen around his age in a leg cast. He jogged down the walkway to help her, grabbing her backpack without a thought.

"Oh, thank you so much!"

Midoriya nodded, being able to see the girl better now. She had brown hair in a bob with large brown eyes and rosy cheeks.

"I didn't know if I would be able to make it."

Midorya laughed somewhat awkwardly, "Yeah, uh. What class you in?"

Her eyes widened and she stuck her hand out but lost her footing. Izuku quickly righted her and smiled at her embarrassed blush.

"Sorry! Uraraka Ochako! I'm in class 1-A."

Izuku laughed in slight surprise. "Ha, imagine that. Midoriya Izuku, class 1-A."

She laughed, eyes still lit with gratitude. "We should probably get going then Midoriya-kun. Don't want to be late."

He nodded, "Yeah, I can't bring my feet to go forward though."

She laughed, quickly using her crutches to walk faster. She slipped and Midoriya ran to catch her. Again. Her smile fell and Izuku was mildly startled to see somebody look as terrified as he felt.

"I – I can't do this. What am I thinking? I – I need to go, my parents – no. I – this is so embarrassing."

Izuku hesitantly grabbed her shoulders. "Breath, Uraraka-san. You can do this."

She whined, hiding her face. He debated on what to do, while he honestly was leaning towards running far away from this place, he knew the other would have worked hard to get here. She wouldn't be freaking out as much as she had otherwise.

He looked up, praying for some assistance but was met with nothing. He looked back, "Hold still."

He took the crutches and set them down. He placed both bags over her shoulders. She looked more like a hunchback than anything else.

She groaned under the weight. "What are- what are you doing?"

Izuku sighed, smiling shakily. "Making sure we aren't late."

He knelt down in front of her, back to her and facing the very intimidating building. She seemed to get the hint.

"Oh, wait one second!"

He turned, seeing her touch the backpacks and looked at her. "What did you do?"

She blushed. "It- it's my quirk! It's called Zero Gravity. I lightened the weights on the bags…"

Midoriya allowed his mind to race at the possibilities of the others quirks for a short moment before shaking it off. That was the first bell.

"Great, that was awesome. But we need to go."

She nodded, trying to find out how to get on his back. She just shut her eyes and fell forward. He groaned at the added weight, surprised for a moment before holding her knees. He shifted, eyeing the crutches – great.

"Uh, this might be weird but you need to wrap your legs around my waist. I need to get your crutches."

It was bulky with the cast but he managed. He looked up at the building.

"I am so sorry."

Izuku shook his head, feeling some curls fall out of his beanie. "It's fine."

_Move you stupid feet!_

Running wasn't what he had in mind but he did it. Their classroom was on the third floor and by the time they made it in front of the door, he was sweating.

He idly noted that this would be really good training.

"This is it."

His hands fell on his knees, handing the crutches to the girl who was eyeing him in wonder. Yeah, his face wasn't red just because of the run. This was awkward.

He took his backpack and opened the door for her, waving her in. She smiled before waddling in. Izuku followed, taking his beanie off and scratched his hair before putting in back on.

"Deku?"

Midoriya froze, slowly looked up. The voice was different with age and much softer than he was used to. But that may have just been the shock. Bakugou fucking Katsuki.

"Kac- what?"

Red eyes were somehow both darker but brighter than he remembered. He hadn't seen the other in – how long was it? He honestly doesn't remember. It had been years, that was for sure.

The other teen looked at him in absolute wonder – that was the closest thing Midoriya could think of. That or confusion. Which would make sense.

Their very, very small conversation garnered the attention of the rest of the class and that was nice.

Midoriya absently pulled the sleeves of the blazer down, making eye contact with his childhood…friend. Again.

They hadn't left on a very good note. Nor a bad one. Or any, really. Given that he stopped going to school for a few days before moving several prefectures away.

"The fuck you doing here?"

Midoriya noted that the other had gotten quite the mouth. When he was young it was bad, limited to shoot and crap. But it seemed his vocabulary had grown with age.

"Uh, school…"

The other looked at him oddly, getting up and shoving a tall teen out of the way. The greenette straightened, wondering if the other would hit him. He had taken to doing that to him before he moved for some reason.

However, his eyes were wide and his arms were limp at his sides. Was he seriously being hugged?

He grunted, feeling the others grip tighten even more. Yes, he was getting hugged.

"The hell happened to you? You – you just got up and fucking left, you shittyfuck. Why?"

Midoriya swallowed, looking at the other with more normal eyes. His throat was dry and – this wasn't what he expected would come of his first day. Looking at his old…friend. Acquaintance? Something. He didn't know what the other was thinking.

He glanced around, noting to a small level of embarrassment that everybody was watching them. He attempted to swallow again but it was too dry.

"Alright, everybody sit down."

He felt himself get pushed several steps before he was shoved into a seat, Katsuki taking the one right next to him. He looked at Aizawa -why was he in a sleeping bag?- and was glad that the other wasn't asking the question that lit his eyes.

"It took you eight seconds to settle down. If that's to happen everyday, leave. This is a place to learn, not chit chat."

The class shifted uncomfortable and Midoirya resisted the urge to snort. He didn't know why and glanced away. Katsuki was still looking at him, though listening to Aizawa.

"Aizawa Shota, I'm your homeroom teacher. Put these on and meet me outside. You have ten minutes."

Midoriya stood with the rest of the class, finding Katsuki immediately at his hip. Which was really freaking weird and he wasn't looking forward to the questions he knew that the other would be asking.

His mom had gone to school with Katsukis. Hell, he would call Katsukis parents Auntie and Uncle. His mom stopped talking to them after the divorce. He knew, because he'd want to play with the other. But seeing his mother so upset when he asked, he stopped and resigned himself to leaving his old life behind.

It was easy. He was young. Midoriya only needed his mom.

Welp.

His back met the lockers roughly and he blinked, realizing that they were somehow in a locker room. Katsuki must have dragged him here.

He flinched when he was shoved harder, not by the force but by the lock digging into his bruised shoulder. Izuku opened his eyes, meeting angry red.

"The hell is wrong with you!?"

He swallowed, shoving the other off him. He pulled his sleeves further down, regripping the tracksuit in his hands. Every other male in the class was watching, but slowly changing. He sighed, looking back.

"Can-can we talk about this later? Please?"

The other snarled, hands waving and his expression was just asking why.

Midoriya sighed, starting to change before opening a random locker. All of them had card showing the number so they just needed to pick one. He ignored the eyes on him as he tugged his shirt off, trying to ignore the gasps that followed. He realized that he was covered in light scars and bruises – he probably should have changed in a stall.

He tugged the gym shirt on, noting that it was made of durable fabric and frankly uncomfortable. It would take some getting used to.

Izuku shoved his clothes in the locker, along with his beanie and turned. He began to tie his hair in a bun – the length still somewhat short so some fell out.

Katsuki was already dressed and his jaw clenched, waiting impatiently and his foot tapping. He sighed, glancing at the others again. All were slowly leaving.

"Katsuki – "

The other shook his head, grabbing his arm roughly and Izuku sighed.

"No, shithead. You said later. We can talk later, got that!?"

Izuku tsked, ripping his arm from the others grasp but stood by him on the grass as they waited.

"Shithead? Really?"

Red eyes looked at him with a very loose amusement before turning to look at Aizawa.

"Yes. You're a Shithead, Shithead."

Midoriya nodded, turning to face Aizawa. Who was apparently his homeroom teacher. Which was interesting.

"If I'm a Shithead, does that make you an Asshole?"

The other snorted, neither looking at each other and his voice was a tad quieter.

"No way in fuck. I'm an angel."

Midoriyas lips twitched but he didn't respond.

"Today we'll be taking a physical evaluation, much like the ones you took in junior high. Unlike junior high, you will be using your quirks. Bakugou, get up here."

The teen next to Midoriya walked forward, looking confident and Izuku tried not to let the fact that he was quirkless intimidate him. He had gotten used to it, so it shouldn't matter. He was always at the top in previous years anyway.

But that was without quirks. So this was great.

"Throw the ball but stay in the ring. Other than that, anything goes."

Katsuki let out a 'Die!' before throwing the poor rubber. They all watched as the ball went flying and left a tail of smoke. The blondes hands were still smoking. They didn't hear it hit the ground.

Aizawa turned, showing a tablet that held the numbers 702.2. Midoriya whistled, giving Bakugou a look. He wasn't surprised but…yeah. It was a bit shocking. Katsuki returned it haughtily before returning to his place beside him.

"The person who gets the lowest combined score will be expelled. Use your quirks, or don't, but try your best. UA is a Hero School, we only have three years to make you into the best heroes you can be."

Loud complaints were immediately followed and Midoriya inched away slightly.

Aizawa snapped back, voice heavy with annoyance.

"Life isn't fair. If you expect this to be easy then leave. You'll be sorely disappointed. If a test like this is enough to intimidate you, then you shouldn't even be here. Get this through your head. Understood?"

Them shuffling was the only reply he got and Midoriya wondered if the other wasn't meeting his eyes on purpose. Life wasn't fair, that was for sure. Green eyes glanced at his possible classmates. Midoriya's last thought as they were breaking into groups, was that this should be…fun.

Not really but what else could he do? He doubted that Aizawa would let him run.

The tests that followed were relatively easy for Midoriya. He didn't get first in any, but he was never below the top fifteen. Which was good, he thought. It promised that he wouldn't get last but he seriously doubted that Aizawa would actually expel any of the students.

"None of you are expelled."

Midoriya snorted, sweat on his brow as he drank the water bottle that they were all offered slowly. The others were shouting, Katsuki grumbling and Aizawa had an amused expression. It was hard to tell that he wasn't tired, that he was enjoying this, but he could.

He idly listened to the pro as he stretched. Bakugou looking at him oddly which Izuku waved off. As he had been nearly this whole time. After all, a quirkless (luckily he hadn't called it out in front of the others) had gotten ninth place out of twenty students.

The school day continued, meeting the other teachers were interesting. Midoriya and Aizawa seemed to hold the same line of thought that they wouldn't really express that they knew each other. Present Mic taught English. Loudly. Cementoss covered Modern Literature.

After that they had lunch and Izuku was luckily able to hide from Katsuki for now. But he wasn't hiding. Or avoiding. Just purposely avoidi – ignoring – not seeing him?

Shut up, you get the point.

The roof was nice, even if he had to pick the lock to get up and the food wasn't bad. He'd probably be coming up here a lot more.

Midoriya slid into the next class before either the teacher or the rest of the class could be there. Using the window. From the roof. It was probably a good thing that Midnight wasn't there to see that. No doubt he'd already be in trouble.

But yeah, Midnight. Teaching Modern Hero Art History. Which was apparently a class. Who knew?

Ectoplasm taught math and he was somehow even more interesting at teaching then Mic was.

He passed Aizawa several times, not acknowledging past a nod on either of their ends. One of which was when the elder was being pulled to another room by Mic. It was amusing to watch, to say the least.

The last class was Heroics with…wait for it. All Might!

Midoriya could do nothing more but watch him make a (Lovable) fool of himself. He looked away, feeling nauseous as everybody else watched. He hadn't seen the other man since he had run back to Tsubani.

_(Name: Toshinori Yagi. Age: 55. Male. Quirk: Quirkless; changed to Strength Enhancement at age 17. Attended UA for two years. Orphan. Parents died young, car accident. He – )_

Too much. This was too much. Breathe idiot, breathe.

He pulled the beanie down lower, shoving his face into his elbow as he looked out the window and past Bakugou. He ignored the inquiring and somewhat annoyed look the other gave. It was more than easy to do. Looking out, it seemed windy but peaceful.

He faintly wondered if Aizawa would let him out tonight. It was safe to say he wouldn't but today had been stressful. He could hope, right?

Pft.

"– hero costumes! Change and meet me outside to go to Ground Beta, young heroes!"

They were cheering again and Izuku decided that he should look into incorporating sound muffling(ers) into his beanie. The class seemed to be the kind to cheer. A lot. Loudly.

He stood and stretched and for the first time today, Bakugou seemed alright with letting him out of his sight. He found his cupboard and refrained from smiling as he pulled the case out.

It was a decent size, matching every other one and held the school symbol. For the second time today, they all found themselves in the locker room. He accidently ran into somebody, Kiri – something, as he walked towards the stalls to change this time.

Erasure had actually been 'nice' enough to 'help' him design his costume. By help, he means that they had a near two hour long discussion (aurgument) about if he could incorporate anything to do with Midorikari into his new costume. Aizawa was more giving him a heads up and trying to persuade him to alter it and not have, like, any similarities.

But Midoriya argued that it was what he was good at. He was already quirkless and because of quirks, you didn't see many people use weapons as it is. Which, may be a bad thing, given how 'popular' or something he had gotten. At least that was what Naomasa was saying. But he wasn't really talking to the other…

Either way, Aizawa was hesitant. Midorikari wasn't supposed to be encouraged. But at the same time, Midoirya was Midorikari and vise-versa. Many knew of Midorikari but not what he specialized in, if you could even say that.

So, they settled, more or less on what he was now wearing. He had to admit that it wouldn't take much for people to connect the dots but it was who he was. It was…what he was good at. He didn't want to change that.

And it very loosely, felt like he was honoring his mom in some weird way. He didn't know.

What did he know these days? He sure didn't.

Alright, Izuku, stop talking to yourself.

The green haired teen huffed, kicking his legs idly as he got used to the material.

The pants he was wearing were similar to joggers that he had taken to wearing in a green so dark it was nearly black. The shirt was long sleeved, same material and he wore a vest over it. It was a lighter green and lined with pockets on the inside, being left unzipped on purpose for easy use.

He had a thin utility pouch in a dark red, and the pouches sat near his back. He was only allowed one thigh pouch which made him upset, once again in the same color. It could only hold three push knifes which really sucked but, Aizawa. And he agreed. He couldn't mimic his old get up but that didn't mean he was particularly happy about it.

He sighed again, putting on the last holster. (he had more than many other pro-heroes, he realized. But they weren't quirkless, so…) The holster was dark red, once again, and clipped to his shoulders and rested between his shoulder-blades.

Aizawas best idea was to change the staff. Many didn't know about the knives since they were lethal and he tried not to use them. But using a quarterstaff was probably what would have gotten him recognized the most. He brainstormed with the other nearly all night once he was told that he needed to design a costume the same day he took the placement tests for UA. (All the while trying not to think about how easy it was to just talk with the other since their discussion on dead(ish) parents.)

Instead of a quarterstaff, he trained (for a solid two days. Which is nice, plenty of time there) in using two (not one but two) tanboes.

…To say it was difficult to get used to dual wielding a shorter weapon would be an understatement.

Either way, his face mask pooled at his neck. Instead of an eye mask, he opted for a hood. The hood itself was connected to the vest and it covered both his eyes and hair. The hood itself actually had two layers. The first of which, a softer material and meant for the purpose of keeping his identity a secret. It had built in clip picks that would hold his hair back so he didn't have to worry about his hair falling out and being recognized.

The second layer was more for durability reasons. It was a heavier material, which was nice. It pointed a bit more in the front, going a good few inches in front of his face and came down to an almost beak. When it came to his back, it managed to lay and point perfectly between his shoulder blades.

(He was only keeping the first layer on for now.)

He bit his lip as he held the shoes, the door outside was opening and shutting so he should probably hurry.

Midoriya blew out a breath, slipping his first foot into the boots. And that was what he was having such a hard time with. He never wore boots… It was different.

They were red. Because he was unoriginal. But, red was the opposite of green. So…you would never guess he was Midorikari…

"Good lord. Why do you do this to yourself, 'Zuku?"

He puffed out another breath, looking down and pointedly kicked the ground with the tips of his toes. A grin broke out when six spikes (three on each boot) popped out from the toes.

Perfect for climbing.

And kicking stupid people in the face.

Two for one.

"Sweet."

He opened the stall, shoving his school clothes into the locker along with the costume case before turning. Midoriya immediately met Bakugous eyes and met his eyebrow with his own. He even gave a twirl, only smiling when he saw the others glare.

Midoriya walked out, letting Bakugou finish getting dressed. The arm guards looked like grenades and his quirk was explosions. It probably served as a carrier and transfer system for his sweat.

Smart.

He rolled his shoulders, mildly uncomfortable at the amount of looks he was getting. He pulled the gloves out from his utility pouch and pulled them on.

Red. Not green. See? He wasn't Midorikari.

"Woah, don't you look kinda like a villain?"

Midoirya started, looking up a whole two inches before he was met with another teen. Who was very small. Purple. And was wearing a metal diaper.

He could say so many things right now…

Instead he snorted, knowing people were listening and shook his head. "I'm not trying to be flashy. Bright colors are a no go."

He honestly looked confused. Midoriya could understand why, once he got past his annoyance of inadvertently being called a villain.

"Don't you want to get attention though?"

He hummed, pulling the velcro over his outer wrist and securing it.

Midoriya had thought that years ago. When he first worked underground and a bit before then. But he realized very quick that even if he was involved in heroes and villains, he wasn't a villain or a hero. Not that it really matters, he just needed the money.

But not anymore. That wasn't why he was doing this.

"I don't want attention, it's not why I'm here. I just want to help people. I couldn't care less about if people know who I am."

When he actually looked up, he realized that his words had garnered the attention of many of the other students. As well as All Might.

This day was going so great.

Izuku cleared his throat uncomfortably before hopping up the stairs of the bus and getting a seat. They were supposed to leave any minute now. Hopefully. He still didn't know why the hell they were leaving the classroom.

Instead of acknowledging the mutters and talking outside – luckily All Might continued the lesson without him – he looked closer at the weapons that were made for him professionally. And not from an amateur with metal from a dump.

He let out a low whistle, pushing his thumb against the blade of the knife gently. It was sharp. They were silver, which kinda sucked since he painted his black so they didn't reflect but it was his fault. He didn't specify.

They were really pretty.

The hilt was more ball like instead of a stump where it just kinda ended. It would probably be easier to use once he got used to it. His eyes widened when he realized why that was.

It was dual purpose now, so the knife wasn't completely lethal and he could just knock them out.

But it was marble like in dark green and black. He pulled out the other two, one of them was red.

He looked up, noticing people were beginning to board. He slid it back into place and looked out the window.

"Hey! Can I sit here?"

He turned back, it was the girl from earlier. But she didn't have a cast on –

"How did you-?"

She laughed, glancing at the seat again and her smile shifted. He scolded himself, moving a bit closer to the window and was given a bright smile in return. He took in the girls costume and the helmet that was on her lap. Given that her quirk had to do with gravity, he could see why she went the route of making it similar to an astronauts.

"Oh, uh Aizawa-sensei sent me to Recovery Girl, that was why I was late to the quirk apprehension test…"

Midoriya looked away, slightly pained look on his face that made her laugh. Right. It totally flew from his mind given that he was in the same class with Bakugou again.

Today was really not what he expected it to be.

"Right, sorry."

She laughed again, waving it off. She gestured to his clothes, "But what about you? I'm liking the I-can-kill-you-in-your-sleep vibe."

He tsked, feeling a smile pull at his lips at the other. The fact that she was laughing as she said it helped as well. It was contagious.

"That was what I was going for."

She laughed again and he opted to shake his head along with her instead of telling her that it wasn't *completely* a joke.

"I like the space theme though. Works well with your quirk."

Her eyes sparkled and she played with her hands. He noted that she never let all five fingers touch at the same time. Odd.

"Oh-uh. Yeah! That-that was exactly what I –Yup! Totally what I was going for!"

His lips quirked, "Seriously?"

Because nobody could actually be that embarrassed when something was done on purpose. She didn't even look at him. He stared a bit harder, both of them jolting slightly once the bus started. She turned, face redder and words rushed.

"My- it was actually because of my favorite hero. Uh, Thirteen! The rescue hero! They look like an astronaut too! And this! It really wasn't supposed to be skin tight! But it is and it's terrible! I hate it!"

He slumped in his seat, hands to his mouth as he actually laughed. The girl completely fangirled before her voice turned to such annoyance. It was hilarious. He let his body fall to the window from her push.

"It's not that funny!"

Her voice was laced with amusement though and he eased up. Wiping his eyes, stomach hurting and decided not to delve into why. Just enjoy the random bout of happiness while he could.

"Ok, ok, sorry. It wasn't that funny."

She sent him a suspicious look that was ruined by the smile tugging at her lips. He swallowed, wondering if he should keep…this…going? Or just stop? He didn't usually talk to kids his own age. It was odd and this wasn't enjoying the random happiness he was feeling. This was questioning the universe and not enjoying it and –

"But seriously. What about you? I haven't seen a hero costume quite as…dark as yours before."

He rose an eyebrow in slight disbelief. "Uh, you do know that Aizawa-sensei is Erasurehead, right?"

She looked slightly embarrassed, shifting. He moved, turning and his knee digging into the vinyl of the seat in front of him.

"No? What about Akumo? Or Backlight?"

She shrugged again, looking a bit more interested now that she knew he wasn't actually upset with her.

His eyebrows went to his hairline and his hand went to tug the beanie off before remembering that he wasn't wearing it.

"No? Holy -do you know about Underground Heroics? Like- at all?"

She shook her head, "No? It almost sounds like it would defeat the point if I knew?"

He took a deep breath, reminding himself that not many actually knew about it. But - wow. He didn't think it was that hidden. He had known about it for years.

"Ok, wow."

"What is this underground, ribbit?"

They both turned to the girl who had spoken. Her eyes were big and her costume was green and yellow, with goggles on her head.

He glanced back at Ura – what was her name? And saw her shrug. His eyes bugged a bit, looking around and saw that the few people listening didn't know either. His mouth dropped and he turned to a blonde, voice taking a note of slight pleading hysteria.

"Wha- Bakugou! You know about the Underground, right?"

Both the blonde and Kiri-something turned to him. The blonde looked at him like he was stupid.

"Of course I do, Shithead! I'm not an idiot!"

Midoriya waved, the others yelling catching everyones attention.

"I know you're not, Asshole. But nobody -does anybody know about the Underground?"

The entire bus listened, including All Might and the only reason he was pointing any of this out was because the hero wasn't stopping him.

"I know about the Underground hero and villain community. It is indeed a mad banquet of darkness."

Midoriya nodded eagerly, ignoring the odd parts of birdies admission. He turned to Ura – something (he should really learn her name. And the classes. That would be good.) and waved, hoping that she would catch on.

She glared at him.

Izuku slumped, meeting Katsukis own (now that he was catching on) bewildered gaze. Midoriya jumped back up,

"Ight, so the Underground is what people call heroes and villains who stay in the dark. You know, stay out of the light and away from the publics eye. That's really all it is but -seriously, Aizawa-sensei is – "  
"Oh shit! Is he Erasurehead?!"

Midoriya nodded at Katsukis shocked explanation.

"Yeah. His quirk, erasure. It lets him erase other peoples quirks! He's super big in the underground and has been a hero for over a decade. He's like- a super big deal and the Underground is legitimately a whole 'nother world of heroes."

"It is indeed. My favorite is Quick Shadow."

Midoriyas head whipped back to Tokoyami. "You know him!?"

The bird like teen nodded, voice stoic but eyes giving way to how excited he was about the topic. Before they could get into him (he was super cool), another teen spoke up. The whole bus was listening by now.

"Wait-wait, so this Underground. What is it that they do and – given its name, how do you know about it?"

Midoriya swallowed, Bakugou speaking up and took the moment to think of something to say. Because he very well couldn't say that he worked in it. As soon as he hit double digits as a broker and runner for both ends. Not the deep end, of course. But enough to get into some serious trouble if the force didn't know about it. Or Naomasa. He knew.

But given how he already broke many, many laws, he probably wouldn't report it.

" – all have villain quirks. The public wouldn't like them. Vigilantes and shit would be under that category as well."

Midoriya stilled and it seemed that the bus filled with another sense of excitement. Midoriya could feel the teachers gaze and he only swallowed again.

"Those are real?"

"I thought they stopped coming up years ago!"

"It's cause they're _underground_, stupid."

"So Midorikari would work in the Underground!?"

"You know Midorikari!?"

"Who's Midorikari?"

"You don't know!?"

Midoriya had a hard time not slumping any lower as the conversation turned to him (not that they knew it).

It wasn't until a yellow headed teen spoke, waving his phone excitedly.

"Dudes! Seriously, I've been following his hashtag for months! He's legit and – "

"He has a hashtag?"

The teen turned to him, not catching onto his slightly crazed note. He only grinned.

"Yeah, man. Like, eight months ago he popped out from Tsubani. Which, you know, is a terrible place and – "

"Aren't vigilantes like, bad, though? Since they don't follow the law and stuff?"

Voices overlapped but the yellow kids' voice rang through them all. His voice almost defensive and Midioriya didn't understand why.

"No way, dude! Not him, this guy is sick! He was actually taken down a few weeks ago, which totally sucks but he stopped a hostage situation. He ended up getting shot three times! He must have escaped though, 'cause he was seen around here-"

Midoriya looked at him, mid panicking and why wasn't All Might saying anything?

"How do you know that?"

The teen looked at him and grinned sheepishly, "One of my friends has family in Tsubani that were saved by him months ago and has turned into like, his biggest fan. He and some buddies actually painted this memoir with him and – "

"He's the one who painted it!?"

The teen (and some others) looked at him suspiciously. He hopped from his own seat and sat in the empty seat in front of him.

"You've seen it. Have you seen Midorikari?! Dude, you have to tell me!"

Midoriya swallowed, "Uh…no?"

He pointed, grin on his face. "You are such a liar! Why – "

"And we are here students! Let us get out and started! Lots to learn and fun to be experienced, young heroes!"

All Might shuffled out and they all stood. Some looked disappointed about the conversation stopping how it had and some looked like they didn't care less. At least that was something.

"Alright, this is Training ground Beta! We will be dividing into teams of two and everyone will take a turn. One side will play villains and the other will play the heroes. There is a bomb located in one of the buildings and the villains will have to protect it before the time runs out or the heroes will try and tag it. That is how the exercise will end. The only way to win is if both people from the same team are taken out by the capture tape that will be given to both heroes and villains or the bomb is taken care of. Any questions?"

Many were bouncing and muttering in excitement and admittedly, Midoriya was feeling a bit excited as well. He refrained from taking a couple steps back from Bakugou. The blonde looked slightly crazed.

"Can we pick our own teams?"

Midoriya only took note of the paper All Might was reading off of when he pulled a box out of god knows where.

"No! We will be drawing lots!"

Midoriya shuffled in slight sympathy when he was only met with groans. It took another moment for the teacher to continue.

"Alright, heroes! Team 1, playing the villains will be Sero and Mineta. Team 2 playing Heroes will b – "  
As Midoriya looked up at the sky, he wondered if the universe hated him. Probably. Why else would he be teamed with Bakugou? Facing Speedy and Gravity?

He really needed to learn their names.

XXX

Hey guys, I would really love to know what you think so if you can drop a review, I'd appreciate it. Thanks to those who have followed and favorited. XOXO


	7. Of Pain and Questioning

Okie Dokie, uh, this chapter sucks. I know it's not medically accurate. I also can't write fight scenes….Enjoy? Or at least try to or something. IDK. Thanks for the love guys!

XXX

"Alright, Shithead. We're gonna win this! Just stay out of the damn way."

Midoriya nodded, not really knowing what else to do. They were playing the villains and, looking past Bakugoes dramatic commands, he did have a pretty solid plan. He would guard the bomb while Bakugou took the other two out. The clock hadn't even started but Bakugou already left the room. Izuku sighed, debating if he should say anything or not.

In the end, he decided to just screw it. It took a moment to find the right button on the headset.

"Uh, hey, Asshole?"

"What, Shithead? I thought I made the plan clear!"

Midoriya tsked, looking out the window and frowned when he saw the two heroes heading in.

"They're coming in, east entrance. They haven't separated yet."

There was a slight pause before he heard the shuffle of running feet.

"Thanks, nerd."

Midoriyas face contorted into confusion before he rolled his eyes. "Anytime, angel."

He muted it when the telltale sound of yelling came through. He could hear him clearly from the floors dividing them anyway.

Izuku scratched his cheek, looking around the room. There weren't any rules against moving the bomb, right? He kept an ear out as he walked towards the 'bomb.'

It was big and, yes, very heavy.

Midoriya huffed, tilting his head. There was no way to move it by himself, so it seemed that it would be staying there. Right in the middle. Lovely.

The yelling and explosions became both louder and clearer, so he assumed that Bakugou was either really mad or they had gotten closer. The teen glanced around the room before sighing.

Midoriya found himself leaning behind one of the pillars. As he waited, as instructed by Bakugou, he pulled out the capture tape they were given. He was surprised that they were given it, seeing as they weren't the heroes.

He clicked the headset back on and was able to hear what was directly being said instead of the muffles. Katsukis curses coming through the headset like fine crystal.

" – ithead! Did you really turn this fucking thing off?"

Izuku took a deep breath, internally regretting said action. "Yup."

The P popped like Katsukis temper.

"They – they fucking tied me up but I'm almost out! Those fucking – "

Midoriya heard the sound of a car – interesting – and relying on the instincts he had learned over the years, he stuck his leg out.

"Ow."

He looked down as Speedy was sprawled out. From the corner of his eye, he saw the shadows move and flipped out of the way. He wasn't quite fast enough and found one of his wrists tied in the capture tape. He hid a wince as he back round kicked Ura – something a good distance away. He slapped Speedies arm away and kicked him as well. Except ow. The guy was fucking built and he may have broken a toe.

"Bakugou, I swear to god, get your ass up here!"

Midoriya eyed the two who were standing and looking at him in surprise and wariness. Midoriya praised them for it, even if it meant it would cause him trouble.

"I'm fucking trying, Deku! This shit is sticky as fuck!"

Midoriya swallowed, pulling on said wrist and discovered that it was indeed sticky as fuck. Nice. They were halfway to capturing him already.

His fingers itched unconsciously for his staff, narrowing his eyes and went to grab it before his hands froze. His jaw twitched as he pulled out the two tanboes. Already, his confidence seemed to drop. To make matters worse, they worked well as a team and it showed. Speedy had really good leg work. And they hurt. His legs.

By some miracle, he managed to get them closer to the edge of the room and not in the middle. They were both looking at him with matching disbelief, red faced and panting. Izuku had cracked Gravities helmet and there were several dents in Speedies armor. He, however, found that his ribs hurt like never before and that he had probably damaged his legs somehow.

Metal hurt like a bitch to kick or punch but it was even worse to head butt. Iron was disgusting.

Spitting out a glob of blood as he kept a weary eye on them both. He wanted to know how much longer this stupid practice would go on. He wondered if he was taking this exercise too seriously. Probably.

He should have just let him have the bomb if the fight was going to be this painful.

"Surrender now, villain! You know how this will end!"

Midoriya keened, shuffling back. "Bakugou, you ass. Get up here."

There was a grunt on the other end, "All Might said I was out. How the fuck are you still in?"

Izuku laughed, standing straighter and hid a wince with ease. Katsuki was out. The teen could honestly say that he wasn't expecting that. On a side note, he really didn't want to hurt the other two, but he also wanted to win. He should have done something from the beginning. Not let himself get tossed around.

They were training to be heroes, right?

Midoriya wasn't a fan of monologue. And he would not go down as the villain who did so. He dropped both weapons, surprising the other two and ran straight for them once again. Gravity eeped, throwing her arm out for a punch at the same time as Speedy raised his leg.

Midoriya growled, glaring the limb and ducked under the arm and tugged, Speedy shuffled for balance. Izuku raised it higher before shoving it back. With Speedy down, he spun back around and grabbed the arm again. She needed to learn a new routine, he noted.

Twisting it behind her back, he ignored her shriek and, with the tape hanging out of her own waist pouch, he tied it around her torso with her arm around her back. He pushed her down as well, turning back to Speedy and was met with a fist to his face.

"Fuck!"

"Deku? What the hell is going on?"

He ignored the headset, running straight for Speedy who was running for the bomb. Right before the taller teens fingers grazed the metal, he was body slammed out of the way. He oofed.

Midoriya and the metal man wrestled. By some miracle, Midoriya ended up on top. His nose hurt, probably broken, and pointed down at the others face making him go cross eyed.

"Speedy, no!"

The others mouth fell open before kneeing the other off him. "Speedy, yes!"

Midoriya was still on the floor, the other making yet another run for the bomb and Midoriya grabbed at his ankle before throwing his own body back, making the teen faceplant. Midoriya quickly crawled onto his legs and wrestled for his arms, one hand searching desperately for the capture tape.

Somehow, he had to give the other points, Speedy rolled backwards – forwards, something, Midoriya barely refrained from screaming when metal dug into, literally, everything. Mainly his face. And nose. If it wasn't broken before, it definitely was now.

Bakugou was still screaming in his ear and they all seemed to pause when a robotic voice rang overhead,

"Thirty seconds until bomb departure. 30, 29, 28 – "

Both him and Speedy began fighting even harder, the taller to be flipped over and Midoriya to, surprisingly, stay under and maintain hold of the others arms.

Midoriya mentally counted down with the clock with his eyes shut tight. He refrained from whimpering. He would rather get thrown through another wall then do this again.

"Iida-kun!"

"Deku, don't you fucking mess this up!"

He growled animalistic, more wounded but still beast like, when an armored elbow dug into his ribs.

"Let me go this instant, villain!"

Midoriya sniffed, blood getting inhaled and making him gag. He managed to wrap one of his legs around the others waist and flipped them over, his arm going around the neck. He remembered to not hold on too hard but enough for it to be a warning.

"People will die, villain! Is that what you want?"

Midoriya gritted his teeth for more reasons than one, knees digging into the concrete as he quickly found the capture tape. Speedy saw and tried even more earnestly to buck him off.

"– 10, 9, 8 – "

Midoriya cursed under his breath, screaming ringing in his ear and Gravity shouting and sounding close to tears. Speedy was fucking strong and only a bit more –

"No!"

Midoriya rolled off, tape roll still in his hand but attached to Speedy on the other end. He found himself laughing hysterically at the two devastated glares he received from the other two students.

"– 1. Bomb has gone off. Training Ground Beta is destroyed. Villains win."

"The villain team has won! Do any require immediate medical service?"

"The fuck! Did we win!? Deku? Did we win!?"

Izuku didn't stop laughing as he stood, wincing slightly. He had definitely broken some stuff. Speedy and Gravity were still on the floor. He pulled out a push knife and cut Speedy loose, ignoring the look of surprise. He offered a smile to Gravity as he cut her loose as well.

"We-we're fine!"

He assumed that All Might could hear them somehow. He took another step and almost faltered, pain wracking through his leg. He really hoped he didn't mess up his ankle. That would be the last thing he needed.

"No, Midoriya-san needs immediate assistance!"

Izuku turned to Speedy, surprised look that quickly changed to denial. "No! I'm fine!"

"I'll have a bot come up. Just hold on, Midoriya-kun."

Izuku tsked, glaring at the two. He shut off the headset and leaned against the pillar. He spat/ threw up some more blood.

"Oh, no."

"Are-are you ok?"

Midoriya nodded at the other two's questions but otherwise didn't respond. He bit his lip and pulled up his shirt.

That was a pretty shade of purple. He was finding that it suited him quite well.

"Oh my god."

He let it fall, looking up at the two tiredly and found Speedy looking at him in horror. He tsked, refraining from rolling his eyes.

"It's fine, Speedy. Don't even worry about it."

He looked at him in mild horror and…something else. Guilt, probably.

"You are bleeding. Internally. And out. This is not fine!"

Midoriya turned to the doorway, hearing a beep and feet running. Bakugou came in not a moment later with wide eyes. Looking past him, he noted a very small woman. His mind immediately labeled, _Doctor._

"What the shit happened?"

Midoriya laughed lightly, hopping onto the robotic stretcher with mild difficulty. The other three teens were talking. Bakugou mostly swearing. Izuku felt his eyes close but not sleep.

"Young man, this was too much!"

He opened his eyes, feeling prodding and refrained from pushing her away. He didn't like hospitals. Or doctors. Or prodding.

"I'm not going to the hospital."

She tsked, as if annoyed that he read her thoughts. "Of course not, just the nurses office on campus. You don't look very alive, if I say so myself."

Midoriya didn't even have to think. "No, thank you. You're Recovery Girl, right?"

She blinked, as if surprised. The other students fell quiet as they walked (or rode) down the hall. "I am. And you are going to the office, young man. Unless you want to bleed out. And that's not happening on my watch."

Izuku spat again, the bowl resting between his legs and tried to ignore his dizziness. "Your quirk doesn't require anything. I'm not going to the office. I still need to watch the other matches."

He cursed again, the other three jumping with wide eyes and surprisingly silent as he was wacked on the head with the cane.

"Yes, you are. Internal bleeding is always worse than it looks. You're lucky I won't drag you to the hospital, young man. No arguments!"

Midoriya found himself getting annoyed, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He grunted, pushing his hand against his stomach and torso and did a very, very bad inspection. The same kind he would give himself and how Aizawa later showed him.

He hasn't died yet, so he couldn't be messing it up too bad.

"It's not that bad and you know it." _Not the worse he's had, anyway._ "I don't do hospitals and I'm not skipping class."

She was almost seething. "Young man – "

He cut in, allowing his urgency to show. "Please."

"What the hell, Shithead?"

They both ignored him. The doctors eyes narrowed and looked away when she found what she was looking for. "Fine. But you need to come see me tomorrow morning to make sure everything is ok. We'll go from there."

"What? No, this Shithead needs a hospital!"

They continued to ignore the other three as they came to the room where all the other students were.

"Thank you."

She continued to glare at him, though it fell softer. "Get up."

He nodded, cursing. He refrained from stepping back when she kissed his hand, too short to reach anything else. He immediately dropped, woozy. He felt somebody catch him, probably Bakugou.

"Shi – ow! A little warning next time?"

He was still blinking away black spots, straightening and finding his footing. He held his nose, which was newly back in place thanks to her…quick actions.

"Next time don't be an idiot. All Might! This is the first day, do try and not kill the students before they can be heroes."

Right when Midoriya thought everything was ok, he rushed back to the bowl and threw up. Blood. More blood. That was nice. He felt…fine, now. Tired as hell, but fine.

He blinked and turned. The rest of the class was looking at him in mild horror and he ignored the way his stomach churned by it.

"That would be excess blood from your lungs. You should be fine now. But eat this, it'll help with the blood recovery."

He grabbed the small, white pill and popped it into his mouth dry. It tasted disgusting. Like a mix between ash and chalk but he could already tell a difference. He nodded, turning back to the class. Everybody was looking at him and All Might was…blank.

It unsettled the teen and he quickly looked away, plopping himself down on the floor. He clapped his hands and refrained from yawning. "Who's next?"

It took a moment for anybody to respond and it was Bakugou at first. The blond sat down roughly next to him, tugging the oversized gauntlets down beside him and tsked, "Well shit. How was that for a villain fight?"

The class laughed uneasily and Midoriya snorted, knowing what the other was trying to do. He was surprised by the gesture and welcomed it. He bumped the others shoulder with his own, noting the stillness that followed the action.

"You should have gone to the hospital, nerd."

Midoriya only hummed, looking at the screens as class continued. It was full of quirks and talent. All of which he felt he didn't have.

He was tired as hell.


	8. Give me a minute

By the time that the class arrived back at the school, it was over. They all changed in the locker rooms before going their separate ways. Midoriya barely finished changing when everyone else had left. The teen pulled his phone out when he felt it vibrate.

'I'll be late, Hizashis being an idiot. See you at home.'

Midoriya reread Aizawas text a few times before tugging his beanie on. He didn't know if the feeling in his stomach was exhaustion or happiness that followed the words but he found himself replying anyway.

'See you at home.'

After sliding his phone into his pocket once more, he grabbed his backpack. The teen found himself face to face with Bakugou. Izuku sighed deeply.

"Any possible way we can do this tomorrow?"

The other stuffed his hands into his pockets, "You said later. It's later. I already told my mom you're still alive."

Midoriya frowned, "Are you kidding me? Dude, come on."

Katsuki shrugged uncaringly, walking away from the locker room. Midoriya watched his back for a moment before sighing in resignation and following. He tried his hardest to ignore Katsukis shaky smirk of victory, punching the other lightly on the arm.

"I need food."

Katsuki made a face, "I'm not feeding you."

Midoriya shrugged, "Then this can wait."

Bakugou stomped his foot before pivoting and turned down the street that would lead to the shopping district.

Midoriya was glad that the other had the patience to wait until they were sitting down. But it seemed to come far too soon. Izuku avoided the others eyes, playing with the number card for the table. Suddenly, Katsuki rapped his knuckles on the tabletop loudly. Their eyes met, leaving the green haired teen to groan internally at the defeat.

"So… what the fuck was the problem? You and your parents up and leaving? Not a word? My mom fucking cried for weeks, shitbag."

Izuku bit his tongue from saying certain things. Like at least he still had a mom. At least he had a dad that wasn't an asshole. You know, the like.

He popped his mouth, glancing at the other before grabbing the offered tray eagerly and popped a fry into his mouth. He didn't know there were American fast food joints around here.

Fries were really good.

"Oi, asshole! I want answers! Now!"

Midoriya wiped his hands on his pants, popping another fry into his mouth for good measure. His head lolled, he really didn't want to talk about this. He was ready to sleep for two weeks but… a small part of him remembered playing with the other. Remembered the family dinners and –

And how close their moms were to each other.

He sipped his drink and spoke right before the other could (literally) explode.

"My dad cheated. For, like, years. My mom had enough of it after a while and got a divorce. Took a few years to save up for a lawyer and shit. We ended up moving to Kinoto for a few months before we moved to Tsubani."

Midoriya ate another fry, swallowing it down as well as the lump in his throat. Katsuki was looking at him blankly and Midoriya found himself continuing. Now that he thought about it, he could really compress the story down.

"My mom died last year. Cancer."

To his mild surprise, the other actually gained a glassy look in his eye, like he was about to cry.

"What?"

Midoriya didn't know what kind of clarification he needed, so he decided the truth.

"She was working a couple jobs and was wearing herself out. I was too young and stupid to notice anything was wrong and she was too stubborn. It was stage four pancreatic cancer. She was in the hospital for close to four months before she died."

The other scooted back, chair scraping and hand to his mouth. Midoriya frowned at the guilt that suddenly rooted in his stomach. He waited another moment for the other to say something but was met with nothing.

"Sorry for laying that on you."

If anything that only made the other look more upset.

"The fuck? That's," Katsukis eyes widened, as if he figured something out. "Is that why you didn't go to the hospital?"

Midoriya grimaced at the memory of white walls and the burning sense of _clean_. He doubted he would ever forget his mothers room. How everything happened so fast in those four months and the feeling of complete and utter helplessness.

He cleared his throat and looked down. "Yeah. That-that's why I didn't want to go to the hospital."  
Bakugou licked his lips, scooting the chair back up to the table and fidgeted. He kept sniffling and Midoriya was suddenly assaulted with the thought that the other actually missed him. His mom.

He swallowed, remembering Mitsuki.

Auntie Mitsuki.

The fierce, loud, violent but caring and loving woman that never liked his father but always loved his mother like a sister.

He sniffed, folding the edge of the paper on the tray. "I'll talk to her. Your mom, I mean. It would probably be easier."

The other didn't answer for a moment and when he did, he wasn't looking at him. "Do-would you really do that? I can't fucking handle seeing her cry."

Midoriya pursed his lips. "I'll talk to her. But not today, I-todays been a lot as is."

Bakugou nodded, "She's-that would be good. Maybe, this weekend? Would-would that work, or?"  
Izuku nodded, "That would be fine."

Neither were looking at each other and they ate despite their lack of appetite.

"Does she have a grave?"

Midoriya stilled, taking a moment. He leaned back, giving up on the food. "She has a headstone."  
Bakugou nodded but didn't say anything else or look at him. Midoirya rubbed his eyes and stood, it was getting late. "I can take you sometime. Maybe with your mom this weekend. It's in Tsubani, though."

Bakugou met his eyes after a moment. "Thanks, Deku. And I'm s – thanks."

Midoriya found himself standing straighter, thankful that the other didn't say the dreaded 'I'm sorry.' He nodded, turning to leave, "See you at school, Kacchan."

Izukus mind was pleasantly blank. He was thinking, yes, but never on one thing for too long. It was nice. Until his phone rang.

Assuming it was Aizawa, he picked it up.

"Hey, sorry. Something came up. I'm – "

"Midoriya?"

Tsukauchi. Why would he be calling this late? Or at all? They haven't spoken for a while.

"What do you need, Tsukauchi?"

The other took an audible breath. Izuku felt pretty sure that he should just hang up. Pretend that the cop never called him. Could be block him? Would that be rude?

"Something came up and we need to talk. Where are you?"

Izuku swallowed, looking around before finding a street sign. "15th south. Outside of Jugos."

"I'll be there in ten, don't go anywhere."

Midoriya hummed, hanging up and sliding it back into his pocket. He crossed the street to get to the actual place. He didn't want to run into Katuski again if he can help it. As instructed, he waited. And waited.

And then it was raining.

Ten minutes hit, followed by fifteen. And twenty. It took almost half an hour for the familiar police car to pull up. Midoriya slid in, ignoring the watchful pedestrians. They were silent for another minute, Izuku not wanting to start talking about whatever it was this was.

"I already called Aizawa, he knows you're with me."

Shit, he totally forgot. He nodded in reply. The other sighed and he turned, waiting.

"We checked out that location that was on the card. Kyoto? We haven't found a whole lot but what we do know is that it isn't good. We think that this League of Villains is connected to All for One."  
Izuku didn't show his surprise. He didn't want to talk about this. The League of Villains. About All for One. Because then this would lead to All Might and his supposed quirk.

Pretty much everything that caused the rift in the barely there relationship between the two of them.

"We weren't planning on pulling you into this, trust me Midoriya, but at this point we don't really have a choice."

Midoriya swallowed at the others solemn tone. The other didn't continue, waiting for him to say something and he sighed. "Ok?"

The other glanced at him, rain pelting down and the windshield could barely keep up.

"The past couple weeks, nine people have been murdered. All of which leave some sort of taunt. Aimed for you. For Midorikari."

Izuku shifted, rubbing his shoulder. "Were they killed by the League? Is this because I didn't join Shigaraki?"

The detective exhaled heavily, getting on the freeway. Izuku refrained from saying anything. He was tired as hell and it looked like he would be out for a while. At least Aizawa knew.

Speaking of which.

"You said that I was out, or whatever. That I'm a kid or something. Shouldn't you be talking to Aizawa?"  
The cop looked at him sadly for a moment before it was masked.

"We did. The thing is, Midoriya, is that the world at this point isn't as great as it looks. I'm sure you know this, but when you started being a vigilante, you made yourself a public figure. A well known one, even if it's in as compact of a place as Tsubani. Word gets around."

Izuku frowned, "Get to the point, Tsukauchi."

"Tsubani was one of Japans red light cities, it's what we call the cities that have high crime rates. What a lot of people don't know is that it's more or less, on purpose. You can't get rid of all crime, particularly when quirks are involved. So we confine it. It doesn't always work out."

Midoriya didn't really know what he could say to that. It wasn't like that was a surprise but hearing it from a cops mouth was something else. That they'd purposely have cities where crime rate was so high that when a kid doesn't even flinch when you hear that people have been murdered.

Like him. Something twisted in his stomach and he looked out the window again.

"You already knew this."

Midoriya shrugged looking back. "It's not that hard to figure out. You learn a lot when your involved as well."

The other shifted, looking somewhat uncomfortable. Izuku rolled his eyes. He didn't know what the other was expecting him to do. Cry? Shout?

"Anyway, we aren't positive that they're all connected to the league. We only know that one is."

Izuku turned to face him completely, now completely lost. The detective continued, getting off the semi-busy street. Izuku noted that it was the exit that would take them to the outskirts of the city.

"This usually happens when new heroes make their debut and begin to garner attention. We have a note from the first murder, signed by somebody by the name of Himiko Toga. She's confirmed to be involved in the league. We believe that the other three are copycats, of some sort. The one thing they all have in common is that they're all calling you out. We call them challengers."

Midoriya winced, starting to get an idea.

"Now, I know that you've been out with Aizawa the past few days. And I am disappointed, but at this point, I'm more worried."

Izuku refrained from saying that he didn't have a right to be disappointed. That he had no place to be. They were pulling into a street that showed half a dozen cop cars and other government vehicles. The lights on the cars were going crazy, making him dizzy. Izuku didn't look at the other as he spoke.

"The one killed today wasn't even is Tsubani or Kinoto. It happened here. In Masafasu. Four prefectures away from where you started."

Izuku swallowed the bile at what he was being told. There was no way Midorikari would have spread out this far. But –

He showed himself in another city. A larger city where it was bound to get more attention. Where it wasn't a crap city that had this type of stuff happen everyday. He was an idiot. He was so stupid-

"I'm sure you figured out part of it. The department and I don't like it but the chief ordered that you get involved. The person found killed today was a hero. Silver Orchid."

Midoriya bit his cheek, the car stopping but the cop didn't make a move to get out yet. He –

None of this was supposed to happen. He did this to help people. Now they were getting murdered? That wasn't supposed to happen. Hell, he wasn't sure it was even supposed to go this far. None of this.

"Let's go, kid."

Midoriya waited a second before opening the door and following the other. The steady fall of rain had turned to a sprinkle. He pulled his blazer tighter and moved his beanie further down.

He followed the officer under the yellow tape of an alley and tried to ignore the pitying looks he received from the other unnamed cops. He managed to keep a straight face when they found the body. It wasn't hard.

Silver Orchid. Female. She had been a hero for a little over five years. She was able to control poison based plants at will. She wasn't known well above ground but she had been fairly well known underground.

The alley looked normal, dirt and trash littered, if you ignored the body and the blood splattered brick. There was a note pinned between two crumbling pieces of the wall by a sword.

Midoriya walked forward and pulled it off. Nobody stopped him. Tsukauchi wouldn't let him into a designated crime scene until they had everything they needed. He read.

'_Greetings, Little Hero._

_I say with honesty that I'm impressed. Your little act with the bank is what sold the show. As I kill off these fakes, the people could use a real hero. Don't go anywhere – _

_Stain.'_

Midoriya, through his shock, reread the letter. And again, just to be sure. "Stain."

He looked at the body of the hero, noting the cuts and wounds. They were definitely from a blade. He should have had an idea when he saw the sword with the note. But you couldn't blame him. This was _Stain_.

"Self proclaimed Stain, garnered the name of Hero Killer after his villainy debut and has carried it with pride. His real name is Akaguro Chizome. 31, male. For the past two years he's been killing off heroes. From what small profile we've gathered, we think that he holds the belief that this is all his duty. All of the heroes who have died have been under 30 in the country ranking system. And none of them have anything to do with volunteer work or charity."

Midoriya shoved his hands in his pockets, thinking for a moment. He scanned the note again.

"You think he's killing off fake heroes."

Tsukauchi nodded, small glint of pride in his eyes. "The heroes he believes are fake, yes. Again, we don't have anything concrete. He never stays in one city for more than a week and doesn't pop up again for another couple. This is the first time he's called another hero out, save for All Might."

Midoriya frowned slightly and looked away. You could hardly tell there was a fight. Like the hero just fell.

"What's his quirk?"

The officer let a bit of annoyance seep into his voice. "We don't know. We believe it has to do with either the blood or the swords he favors so much."

Izuku nodded, not saying anything. He didn't know what the other was expecting, to be honest. He had an idea but that was insane.

They ordered him to be 'out.' For legal purposes. And for whatever other reasons they had. He didn't know what their problem was. Or his own. Everything was messed up.

Naomasa noted it, studying the kid. When it was clear he wouldn't say anything, he continued from where he left off earlier.

"You have the League of Villains, Stains and, most likely, a couple of organizations attention. This isn't good, kid. Generally when heroes leave, the after effects are ugly. And a lot of people are left hurt. People die."

Midoriya eyed him for a moment before turning to face him completely. "I'm not a hero, Detective. I'm just a kid. You made that very clear."

It wasn't guilt that flashed in the others eyes but something else. Determination? Midoriya opted to think on it later.

"You are a hero, I thought I also made that clear."

Izuku shrugged, ignoring the sudden burning in his eyes and willed it away. He was too tired to make a conscious decision but he doubted it would matter.

"Could you get to the point? I gave you the card, you know where the league is. You've been after Stain for years and he's gone by now. He left a warning, that much is obvious. While this is all, by technicality, my fault, I don't see what you want me to do about it. I didn't even know people were getting murdered. I didn't know I was getting called out."

The other tilted his head, Midoriya wondered if he was using his quirk. Probably. There wasn't any use to it though. He wasn't planning on lying to the other anytime soon.

"Yet you still went out. Even when we told you not to."

Green eyes narrowed, "I told you, I didn't know any of this was happening."

"Get involved in the media kid, you're gonna need it."

Izuku cocked a brow, "For what?"

Naomasa rose his own brow, "Are you really going to make me say it?"

"Say what?"

Because, yes, Midoriya was going to make the other say it. What he was trying to get at because he was really too tired of this shit to make guesses.

"The chief wants you out and about. Helping people, being a vigilante and all. You have too much attention and it'll get ugly if you lose it. People will get unsettled and you have the challengers you need to worry about."

"No, I don't. I'm out, remember? I just started school, I have other shit going on. I can't – if I go back out, I'll get more attention. The league is going to come after me at worse and at best, I'll meet other villains. Not petty criminals or drunks. This is real people – who have support and plans. These are real villains."

They both let down the feeble walls they built for each other. Midoriya saw the others resignation and guilt and the cop saw the childs exhaustion.

Because while Midoriya more-or-less pulled this onto himself, he didn't want a league of bad guys attention on him. He didn't want fucking Stains attention. Or who knows how many others.

He just wanted to help people. And he would do this, even if he was tired and felt he had nothing left to lose. But he didn't want to be tugged around by legalities and be told what to do. He… he didn't want to feel like a child pulled into an adults war. But he also didn't want to be treated like an adult because he wasn't.

But being treated like a person, with trust, might be a nice place to start.

"I know that."

Midoriya hated that answer because it really wasn't even that. It was an…opinion, or something. Not an answer.

"What is the chief hoping for if I go back out there? What's his plan?"

When the other finally answered, his frustration showed.

"He doesn't want you to actively look for any of these guys, or fights in general. You'd only go out when Erasurehead is on patrol. You'd be given a temporary hero license if you ever get caught by somebody who isn't under his orders."

Midoriya nodded, not showing his feelings on that. "You're just telling me what I'm going to be doing. What he's wanting for this. To be honest, it seems kinda sketch that the head of the police department is purposely sending a teen out to get involved."

Tsukauchi didn't answer for a moment, inhaling before pulling his phone out and dialing his boss. Midoriya took the phone with an annoyed look and walked away out of spite. If the other didn't want to answer himself, he didn't need to hear the conversation.

"Tsukauchi, I'm busy."

Midoriya pulled his beanie and took a silent breath. "This isn't Tsukauchi. It's Midoriya Izuku."

The line was quiet for a moment. When the chief spoke, light amusement danced in his voice.

"Ah, Midorikari. I've been wanting to talk to you."

If Midoriya was in a good mood, he may think about not sassing the other. But he wasn't. And if he was, it was an if, anyway. Right now, he was tired.

"Well, here we are. What can I do for you?"

"You are the one who called me, Midoriya-san."

He barely refrained from rolling his eyes. "I'm at Stains crime scene. I'm confused about what you want me to do."

"Ah, I suppose that would make sense. How can I help?"

Izuku wondered if all cops were this cryptic and annoying. Probably.

"You can start by explaining what it is your thinking. What your plan is with all of this shit."

The other was yelling at somebody else over the line. Izuku was annoyed but he waited.

"Sorry about that. How about we meet after UA hours tomorrow?"

Izuku looked up, the rain had stopped. "How about you tell me right now and I'll think about it?"

The other let out a chuckle. "You've got some balls, kid."

Midoriya wasn't impressed.

"So, do you. Asking a minor to get involved in legal cases that involve murder and god knows what else. Almost seems fishy."

"What are you implying, kid?"

Their tones turned more serious and Midoriya glanced back at Tsukauchi. The other was talking to other cops but glancing at him. He turned back.

"I just find it interesting that the police force is depending on a fifteen year old kid to do their jobs. All the while withholding potential information from him."

"We aren't depending on you. Don't get a big head with your fans, kid."

Midoriya let out a small whistle. "Didn't know I had fans but thanks for the compliment. Funny you didn't say anything about the information though."

"What do you want?"

Midoriya snorted, "Don't make it sound like I'm blackmailing you. You don't have anything that I couldn't get myself. But if your offering, the truth would be nice. Why do you want me on this specifically?"

In the silence, he glanced back. Tsukauchi was gone but he knew that the other wouldn't go anywhere too far.

"We can't talk about this over a phone, kid. Meet me outside Dasagi park tomorrow morning."

His brow furrowed. "The elementary park in Kinoto?"

A hum. "6:30, kid. Don't be late."

Midoriya nodded at the ding, signaling the end of the call. "Yes, I'll make sure to do that."

Midoriya turned, jumping when he saw Tsukauchi approach. He didn't say anything, only meeting the others inquiring eyes.

"So?"

Midoriya handed the phone over, putting his hands back into his pockets in thought. Something else was happening. Something that Tsukauchi didn't even know, and he was head detective. He supposed it all came down to what the chief had to say tomorrow morning. But for now?

It seemed that at least he had the clearance to continue working as a vigilante.

"I'm surprised Aizawa agreed to this."

The detective shook his head, appearing slightly amused. But not really.

"He didn't. He's against it, if anything, but he said that it's up to you in the end."

Midoriya looked down, trying to breath around the sudden lump in his throat. He had only known the hero for a few weeks, but knowing that the other cared, gave him something else to think about.

"What did the chief say?"

More like what he didn't say. Midoriya sighed, suddenly unsure.

"He said to think on it. He'll call me Wednesday."

Tsukauchi looked surprised, "He's giving you time to think about it?"

"Yeah. I should get to bed, Tsukauchi. I have school tomorrow."

The officer swallowed unsure but nodded and headed back to his car. The ride back was silent. Midoriya looked for the faint stars in the city lights.


	9. What the Hell

Ugh, this chapter is horrible. Uh, reviews? Or lack there of? If you can just drop a small note of what you think, that would be noice! That was intentional. The noice? Uh, yeah. I'll shut up now.

XXX

It was freaking cold the next morning. Midoriyas blazer was folded and in his backpack as he opted for a hoody instead. It took him a while to get there, having not been to Kinoto for so long. He was still tired, only getting about three hours of sleep but the large cup of coffee in his hands would help. Hopefully.

Midoriya pulled his phone out, 6:28. Sitting on the bench, he regretting not bringing gloves. Well, to bring them you had to have them. Maybe he'd get some on the way home. He didn't bother keeping an eye out, knowing the chief would know who he was. It wasn't like there was anybody else in the park at this time either.

Exactly three minutes later, an old man slid in next to him with a groan. Without looking at him, he slid his phone into the hoody pocket.

"You're late."

"And you're young. Forgive an old man and his knees."

The teen scoffed, "Aren't you like, 57?"

The other grinned, honestly not looking a day past fourty. "Ah, you did your research."

Midoriya shrugged. "Mashio Kio. You've been with the force for almost forty years. Straight out of high school, just like your father. You have three kids, all with families. Wife died ten years ago. Your quirk lets you change into a cat. Quirks like that are rare, but it runs in your family."

The other only grinned again, pulling out a bag and offered it to the teen. He took it, not showing his hesitation and peered inside. Two donuts and a breakfast sandwich.

"The chocolate one is mine, if you don't mind. Figured you wouldn't have time to eat before school with the meeting."

Midoriyas lips quirked. "All is forgiven, Mashio-san."

The other waved, looking at the rather sad playground. "Kio, kid. Never one for formalities."

"That's why everyone is scared of you, eh?"

He tsked good naturedly. "They snitched, huh?"

Izuku wasn't sure what to think of the other, deciding to eat the breakfast instead. He refrained from moaning. The other laughed anyway.

"Joes. Best breakfast place within fifty miles."

Midoriya stayed quiet, nodding as he ate. It was really good. He'd have to find out where it was. Once the sandwich was gone, he grabbed his donut and handed the bag to the other. He'd eat his own on the walk to school.

"Confidence is good for a kid your age, you know. I'm glad you have it."

Midoriya leaned back, "If you're talking about my apparent fans, or whatever, I didn't know I had any. And I wasn't doing what I did for attention."

Kio held his arms up in surrender. "Confidence is different than an ego, Midoriya. I meant it in a good way."

"Sure you did."

Kio snorted, blowing on his hands before grabbing his donut. "Why did you do it? If you don't mind me asking? Why'd you start?"

Midoriya yawned, "I just want to help people."

Kios face showed his disbelief, but it was mild. "I'm sure there's more to it but I already know that's a part of it. Just surprised. Some quirkless kid with a tragic background steps up to save the day? Sounds like the old comics. Like Batman."

Midoriya turned, slightly surprised. "Except that nobody had quirks and I don't plan on being a dick."

Kio laughed, not saying anything for a moment. Midoriya checked the time.

"I grew up surrounded by police cases, kid. I remember playing in my dads office at the station in Tokyo. I was practically raised to deal with this kind of shit. I've seen just about everything you can imagine. The good, the bad, the ugly. You grow tired of it after a while."

Midoriya glanced at him before turning back. Hopefully the guy would get to the point.

"I've developed a soft spot for vigilanties. They used to annoy the hell out of me but I started to understand why they do what they do. Laws don't always work and people always fall through the cracks. At times it's hard to say it works at all."

Kio laughed, scratching his shortly cut beard. "But it's what we have. You have people at a front, the police and heroes, mainly. It's what I chose to do and I don't regret it. But recently it's not enough. It's hard with heroes like All Might, but things aren't looking too good. For any of us."

Midoriya waited for the other to continue but he didn't. He gave an inch. "Sounds pleasant."

Kio snorted dryly, shaking his head and ate the last bite of the donut.

"You don't know the half of it, kid. Or, you do. Working in the shade since you were young. Living as you have and doing what you do. Fighting for what you do. It's inspirational kid. You still have hope, but you aren't naïve. That's rare."

"And what do you think I fight for?"

Kio gave him a short, sly smile like he knew something he didn't. "So people don't have to live how you have. Tsubanis disgusting and medical breakthroughs can only happen once in a blue moon these days. Nothing happens unless people want it so bad they're willing to die for it. Not many can do that."

Midoriya agreed, nodding to show as much but didn't say anything. He was just waiting for the other to get to the point but he had to admit that he was getting absorbed. But only slightly.

It wasn't like he was getting interested, geeze.

"But the most amazing part of it is that you're quirkless. In this day and age, having a quirk is everything. Even if it's useless. I can turn into a damn cat. How is that useful?"

Midoriya laughed lightly. The other followed the action.

"Ah, but anyway, it may sound stupid – hell, it is stupid. But I think you can mean something to people. Something important. I don't know anybody who has the guts to go out in this world and face the horrors it has to face. But a fourteen year old did it. Hell, a ten year old kid from Tsubani did it to _survive_. All without the thing that this world values so much."

Midoriya shifted, starting to feel uncomfortable. "So, you want me to go back out, despite the laws that you stand for, because I'm defying the worlds expectations or some shit?"

Kio tsked, "When you say it like that, it sounds stupid. But can't I just have some hope and root for the kid who saved my daughter and grandson?"

Izukus face showed his confusion. "What?"

Kio smiled at him, softer than his previous ones. "The bank robbery. They were in there and you jumped right in front of the gun. It was my eleven year old grandson that it was aimed at. He always adored heroes, but you're his favorite. Got shot three times but easily saved three lives."

Midoriya sniffed, tugging on his beanie and looked away. He refrained from rubbing said shot wounds.

"I was an idiot and never should have gotten involved."

Kio tsked, pushing him gently on his shoulder. "Don't say that, kid. This is what I mean. You did what you do, what you did, and you don't regret a second of it. Saving people and always being willing to do it? Man, I think that's the essence of being a hero. And you have it kid."

Midoriya wiped his eyes semi-angrily.

"The thing that sucks the most, is that you're a kid. Though that's also one of the most important parts. Villains can get dragged into this shit when they're not even out of diapers. Hell, I've arrested some that have been born into it. Heroes aren't born with a birth certificate either. If anybody wants to help this godforsaken world, who am I to stop them?"

Midoriyas breath stilled, "That-that's it?"

Kio looked at him blankly before shrugging. "Of course that's not it. I meant what I was saying. You could mean a lot to people. You have the brain, the guts and the heart to be a hero. People can die any day. We can be attacked by villains any minute. People can die of sickness, of cancer, any minute. And they do. People die, every day. But if somebody wants to help, if you want to help, then I'm not going to stop you. I just want to make sure you do it safely."

Izuku wringed his hands for a minute. "Tsukauchi told me you wanted me off the streets. That you all do."

Kio bobbed his head. "This and that, kid. I did say that, and as much as I love Tsukauchi like a son, he can be naïve. Kids should experience a good childhood, but not everybody can. You sure didn't. I didn't. Some people just don't get that. Naomasa wants you to have memories. Good ones, while you still can.

"But kid, you're going to UA. If I'm being honest, with the League and Stain and countless other organizations that you don't even have to worry about yet, you may not get it. And that sucks, I know but I also know that you want to help people."

Midoriya groaned, wiping his eyes. The other continued, probably because they were running out of time.

"This will be dangerous kid, and a small part, the chief of police and the part of me that's dealt with politics my whole life, needs you to more than anything. Behind the façade of heroes and smiles, a lot of shit happens. And you've seen some of it from when you were younger. But this will be some really bad stuff.

"Politically, you'd be a very good piece to use. You have peoples attention and you have the desire to help people. You're quirkless and a kid, so if anything was to get uncovered, you would be an end of era goldmine."

Midoriya nodded, starting to get what he was saying even if he didn't like it. In fact, he really kinda hated it. But he knew what he was getting at.

"Other than that, it would actually help out a lot. If you were just to make an appearance every once in a while, we'd see more and more of these organizations and eventually, we'd be able to catch them all."

Izuku looked at him in surprise. "I'd be bait."

The other didn't look at him for a moment before nodding resigned. "Yes. Essentially, you'd be villain bait. But if you think about it this way, you'd also have the perfect cover. You're attending UA, the most prestigious hero school. How would you have time to be a vigilante?"

Midoriya straightened, internally kicking himself for not thinking of that himself. But on that topic…

"Yeah, uh, you know. UA is very, uh, top tier. And as much as I would love to continue doing this, I don't know if I can both stay in school and do this without failing classes."

Kio looked at him oddly, "Kid, you broke into the Government Heroics Center when you were, what, nine? You've been maintaining top marks since ever. You built your own equipment. I'm sure you can handle it. I'll also be talking with the principal so he knows what's going on."

Midoriya however, found himself frowning at that. "No! Uh, just-just wait, a second. Let me think."  
Kio nodded, looking at him in soft surprise. Midoriya took a deep breath, tugging his beanie off and pulling on his hair.

This was insane.

Just like going to get the money for his moms present all those years ago and witnessing All Mights downfall of sorts.

Just like leaving the underground.

Just like starting a vigilante career.

Just like doing this.

It was insane.

He was insane.

"I'll do it but-don't- don't talk to the principal. Not yet."

"Er, ok. Why?"

Midoriya took another breath, pulling his beanie on and let his hands fall to his thighs with a clap.

"I already got into UA on a sketch scholarship. The least I can do is work my way through it. For as long as I can. And- and I only need to graduate. I don't need top marks or to be number one. I just need to graduate."

Kio looked at him somewhat oddly. "That's an interesting thought process kid."

He rose an eyebrow, some kind of hesitant tint to his eye. "Is it a bad one?"

To be honest, it kinda was. Lazy efforts to get the minimal you want. But technically, he'd be working as a hero anyway. So…it wasn't the worst.

Kio kind of thought the kid was underestimating himself. He wouldn't be the best, at least until things calmed down a bit, but he'd be far from the worst. Not with his entrance exam score and how smart he was.

"No, it's not. Do we have a deal?"

Midoriya refrained from agreeing. Thinking about how to phrase it, he slowly opened his mouth. "I need to talk to Aizawa first. I don't want to agree, knowing that he wouldn't want me to. I would like to do this with him on my side."

Kio allowed a small smirk, ruffling the others hair (beanie, whatever) he stood. "Let me drive you to school. The next train won't leave for another twenty minutes and then you'd be late."

Midoriya swallowed down the 'No, thank you.' That build up his throat.

He didn't want to be late on the second day of school.

"Right. Thanks, Kio."

The other made a move to ruffle his hair again and Midoriya found himself allowing the action. He followed the other wordlessly. He ended up having a normal car, or one that was always labeled as 'old person.' He snorted, getting in the front seat and waited.

The ride was fairly quiet, save for the soft jazz music that Kio was humming along too. Midoriya shook his head, waving a silent goodbye once they got to the school grounds. He glanced back when he heard the car leave and brought the now lukewarm coffee to his lips. It tasted disgusting but he could feel it slowly energize him.

He walked silently past the students that were rushing to class, the first bell already ringing. He made it to homeroom before the final bell, but Aizawa still sent him a slightly stern (mildly concerned) look. He shrugged, making eye contact with Bakugou for a moment, before he looked back out the window and grabbed his backpack off the desk next to him. Midoriyas lips twitched as he slid in.

"Alright class, since everybody is here now, we'll begin. First things first, we need to elect a class president."

The longer the silence fell, the more unimpressed Aizawa looked. Midoriya glanced around in confusion before the class erupted.

Izuku covered his ears with a wince, glancing at Aizawa and they (almost) shared a look of annoyance.

"Hey, I don't care how you do it, just tell me the results when it's over."

Midoriya tsked, watching as Aizawa sat down, pulling some papers out and left this completely to the class. Luckily, some of them seemed to have a plan. Which was good. He couldn't care less.

They ended up voting, which Midoriya thought was stupid. He could tell Bakugou wasn't that impressed either. In the end, Yaoyorozu ended up as class rep with Iida as second in command. Despite this being only the second day, Midoriya felt it seem to drag on. He was relieved when lunch hour came.

He wasn't particularly hungry, however, so he was planning on going up to the roof. He frowned upon seeing it locked again. He glanced around before kneeling so he could pick it but froze.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Midoriya glanced out the corner of his eye, Bakugou and- Red. He really needed to learn peoples names.

Instead of answering, he continued. He stood at the quiet click and stood, opening the door without pause. Predictably, Bakugou and Red followed. The blonde cursing the whole time. Midoriya sat along the edge with a yawn, pulling his beanie down and phone out.

"Don't-! What the fuck are you doing?"

Midoriya hummed, looking at the expanse of property that was UA. "What does it look like I'm doing?"  
Midoriyas eyes sparkled with amusement when he looked back to the blonde. Said blonde cursed under his breath before sitting down, a couple feet away from the edge and began picking through his food.

"Hey, Denki!"

Both people sitting turned sharply at the red head who was on his phone. He wasn't looking at them so he couldn't see either of their glares. Midoriya held his breath, don't fucking say it, Red.

"We're on the roof! I know, but Midori picked the lock and- yeah, totally come up here!"

Kirishima finally turned, dropping his phone at the two glares pointed at him. He had no idea who's was worse. He shuffled uncertainly.

"Uh, hi?"

Izuku shook his head, turning away and back onto the fields. It was bright. Turning back to Bakugou, he saw him gritting his teeth as Red sat down a couple feet away from him. Green met red and Izuku bit his lip to keep from laughing, for whatever reason.

"It's not that funny, Shithead."

Midoriya shook his head, amused. "It kinda is, though."

Hearing a growl made him laugh quietly and Katuski tsk in annoyance. "Where the hell's your food?"

"Not hungry."

"You should still eat something, man."

Midoriya leaned further to the edge, past Katsuki to look at Red. "I have no food and I don't want to go back to the lunchroom. I'm fine."

Izuku wouldn't admit that he jumped when the roof door slammed open.

"Bakubro!"

Midoriya bit his thumb, glancing at the fuming blonde. This was funny.

"I told you not to fucking call me that!"

"You make friends fast."

Bakugou gave him an unimpressed look that had him smirking. He glanced back, seeing not one but two more people. Great.

"Dudes, what are you doing up here?"

"I don't know. I was following Bakubro, who was looking for Midori and here we are!"

Like that, the yellow head turned to Izuku.

"Oh, yeah! You said that you know Midorikari. You gotta tell me, man!"

Izuku looked back at the gates. "No, I never said that. You shouldn't assume."

"Nah, you can't lie! You've seen the monument, I know that. Why were you in Tsubani?"

Izuku rose a brow, glancing past a silent Katsuki. Red had moved to sit with the other two, Yellow and the tape guy. "I lived there?"

They were silent, wide eyed for a moment before they all began to question him. He agreed with Katsukis grunt of annoyance. Midoriya found himself remaining quiet, he came up here for a reason. To get away from people. That didn't seem to be working.

He leaned forward, seeing a bunch of cars roll up to the front gates. He frowned, "What the hell is the media doing here?"

Katsuki growled, "Probably All Might. I'm surprised it's taken this long for them to find out."

Midoriya gave the other some mental points but didn't think much on the matter. Though, he thought, it would probably be best to figure out how he felt about the hero.

He huffed, about to turn back to his phone when his eyes caught sight of something black. And fast. He leaned forward, closer to the edge and felt his body protest. He allowed Bakugou to pull him back but spoke before the blonde could chastise him.

"You see that?"

The blonde rose a brow, anger giving way somewhat. He turned back, "The media?"

Izuku shook his head, fingers tracing his phone, "No."

When he glanced back, seeing the other still waiting for more detail. "The hell did you see?"

Midoriya looked back to where he had seen it. Or, thought he did. It was probably nothing.

"Just my imagination."

Bakugou didn't seem to believe him but that was alright. Midoriya didn't either.

The day passed with no other problems and what many new students were starting to deem as normal. Midoriya stayed behind, a mix of avoiding people and waiting for Aizawa. With school no longer distracting him, even then, he found his thoughts turning to Kios words from this morning.

He slumped lower onto the floor and pulled his phone out. He looked at it blankly before flipping his head left and right to look down the hall. He flipped the phone in the air a few times and popped his mouth before opening it.

Aizawa had meetings until six and it was only a little after four now.

…Should he just head back home?

Aizawa only had a motorcycle so he didn't even know if he'd be able to fit. Or if he'd like the closeness to it.

"_Get involved in the media, kid. You're gonna need it."_

What did that even mean?

This may have been the first time he had a phone, but he didn't live under a rock. He had a laptop. He's been on Pinterest… kinda. He's YouTubed before. He knew about the blue bird and that one gymnastics thing. Flipper-wheeler-tumbler…whatever it was.

Sniffing with internal dignity, he pulled up the app store and typed in media. A small part of him thought this was all stupid, he didn't really see why he needed to get involved in any of this.

Facebook was the first thing to come up but he already knew that he wasn't going to go that route if he was to do any of this at all. Which he probably wouldn't but…

Pinterest wouldn't make any sense. Tumblr (oh, that's what it was) seemed too personal. And there were a lot of cat videos…

Twitter. Maybe? He didn't know. He already knew that Tsukauchi bugged his phone. So, if he was going to do this, he'd have to look into a way of going around it or just into a new one. Which would mean money. In some way.

He let out a breath and dropped his phone onto the floor with a clatter. It was only five.

Midoriya pulled his beanie off and frowned when he saw the fraying. He thumbed the worn material and blinked away the tears.

Hours crawled by in the hospital and the nurses had suggested that his mom find a hobby to keep her occupied.

Knitting.

Took her forever to figure it out and this was the only one that didn't fall apart. To be honest, he's surprised it lasted this long.

Midoriya sniffed, putting it back on his head with the normal rough treatment. He looked at the lockers that lined the walls for a minute. He took in a dramatic breath before pulling his backpack closer. May as well get a head start on his homework.


	10. Undoings of Plans Not Made

Midoriya had lived with Aizawa for about a month. In that time, they had developed a routine. Well, it was less of a routine and more like rules that went unsaid. Aizawas schedule was too crazy to make a routine.

Rule one- Unless you're dying, don't wake Aizawa up.

Rule two- Aizawa is not allowed to go near the stove.

Or the microwave.

When they got home, they both waited until their stomachs were dying before they entered the kitchen to solve the issue. Aizawa stuck to the stool, papers out on the counter as Midoriya debated on what to make.

"These kids are idiots."

Midoriya nodded in sympathy. He could relate. Even though the comment was rhetorical, he found himself responding.

"What'd they do this time?"

Aizawa groaned, "Everything and nothing. I think they hate me."

Midoriyas lips twitched into an almost smile as he continued to stir the food. The silence made another appearance and it only took a few more minutes for the stir fry to be done. Midoriya grabbed two plates and dished it up. He slid it over to his guardian before getting a couple capri-suns and chopsticks. Izuku leaned against the counter, picking through his food before digging in.

"Did you find out why the media broke in?"

Aizawa sent him a halfhearted glare which he responded with a shrug. The elder sighed in resignation, chewing the food in his mouth before swallowing. "The blonde idiot. They were hounding some drama queen in Vlads class. The kid enjoyed the attention and the media ate it all up. It took a while for it all to settle down."

Midoriya nodded, brows furrowed as he thought back to the roof. Should he mention that he saw something? Probably. He'd sound like an idiot either way.

"I-uh, I was up on the roof and-"

Midoriya looked up hesitantly and nearly faltered at the others dead pan. Yes, the roof wasn't supposed to be a part of the students domain but- well, they should get better locks. Izuku rolled his eyes and continued.

"I think I may have seen something. Other than the media, I mean. I only saw it for a second but…I don't know. Just wanted to tell you I guess."

Aizawa set his chopsticks down and folded his arms. Midoriya took that as a request for more information. Feeling the sense of a talk come up, he pushed away his food.

They still had to talk about his side hobby.

"It was just, like, this black blob. It almost seemed-"

Midoriya stopped dead, grinding his teeth at his own stupidity.

"What, kid?"

Izuku groaned, palming his eyes. Earlier this summer- before all this crap. On the rooftop. The black blob that transported Shigaraki. It…it was probably a stretch but at the same time, it really wasn't. Even if it was just a small chance.

"I-I don't even know how much of a possibility this is but, earlier this summer and before I got shot its- Shigaraki got transported by this…person. Or, their quirk. It was like black smoke and earlier today, on the roof. I could have sworn I saw something and at first I passed it off as a car or something. Maybe it was just my imagination but…"

Aizawa sighed, dragging his palm down his face. "You think you saw him again. Earlier."

Midoriya grimaced and resisted the urge to wring his hands. He didn't succeed. "I-maybe? I don't know but if it was then-"

"Then they could have gotten something. From the school. The media was just a cover."

Midoriya pulled his hair roughly. "There's a possibility, I guess. Yeah."

Aizawa took another bite, eyes glazed it thought for only a moment before they snapped back to reality.

"I'll talk to Nedzu about it tomorrow. He'll know what people would want from the school, or at least narrow it down. We may need to bring it up to the police though."

Midoriya swallowed again and picked up the drink to sip from the straw. He didn't know how to start the next unsaid topic and by the looks of it, Aizawa didn't either.

"I don't really like the idea of you staying out. Especially now that schools started but, if you really want to and you promise to be careful, then you'll have my support."

Or, maybe he did.

Izuku took a deep breath before letting it out. He threw the empty drink into the garbage can under the sink. He walked around the small nook and hopped onto the stool next to Aizawa. He took a moment to gather his thoughts.

"Did you talk to Kio?"

Aizawa rose a brow, neither impressed or unimpressed. "First name basis already?"

Midoriya shrugged, "I saved his daughter and grandson apparently. At the jewelry store."

Shouta snorted but not in humor. "You didn't know?"

Midoriya merely glanced at him. His fingers came to the counter to tap on it. Aizawa was eying his bowl and Midoriya reached over and flung it lightly in Aizawas direction. The elder, however, pushed it back to him, as well as the chopsticks. Izuku scowled lightly but took the hint.

"I have talked to Kio, yes. I can't say that I agree with what he's wanting to do though."

Midoriya rose a slightly amused brow, "What? Use me as bait? Or the matter that I would be a good political piece? 'An end of era goldmine?'"

The other scoffed, eyes carefully blank. "He said that?"

Midoriya nodded, chewing quickly before continuing. "More or less. He's- he can be very persuasive."

"Be that as it may, do you want to? Or are you feeling pressured to?"

Izuku was quiet for a moment, gnawing on his lip. He looked away, "…I do want to. It's something that I've done before, willingly. And-and it's something that I like doing. But it seems to be going fast. I- I never did any of this to get fans, or whatever. I didn't even want the attention, I just wanted to help people. But now I have actual villains after me."

Midoriya palmed his eyes roughly before continuing. His disbelief evident in his voice. It cracked. It hurt.

"I-I have freaking Stain calling me out. I have a mural painted in my name. This- I wasn't even supposed to get into UA. None of this was supposed to happen."

The clock ticked and Izuku would count them if it wasn't for his thoughts going so fast. Neither he nor Aizawa were looking at each other anymore.

"You know, I'm not that great with words. But I will say this, and you better not bring it up again. I think you'd make a great hero, Midoriya. I don't know what dragged you into being a hero, and I'm not asking. It'll be hard, the greatest things always are, but you could do it. All of it, if you really want. UA, Midorikari, eventually being a Pro-Hero. You can do it."

Midoriya bit back tears. He didn't know why he was crying. He had heard most of this earlier today but in a strange way, it felt different coming from Aizawa. More meaningful, maybe, in a way.

Maybe it was because Aizawa was already a hero. Maybe it was because he agreed to take him in. Or because he backed up a recommendation for him to get into the best hero school in the country. Maybe it was none of this and something he hadn't even thought of.

"If you don't like the spotlight, you can always go Underground. I know it's pretty much what you're doing now but there's nothing wrong with it."

Midoriya hated the taste of saltwater. He hated it. But he hated the voice in his head even more. The one that he knew was irrational and didn't even make sense. He knew this but he couldn't help it.

"I don't have a quirk, Aizawa. I feel like an idiot for even trying this. I'm-I'll probably going to end up in a ditch for even trying. For thinking that I could be something more than the poor kid from a trash city but the worst thing is that I wouldn't even care. I-I don't understand why you even took me in or-or why Kio thinks that-"

Aizawas hand met the countertop with a clap. Midoriya swallowed in the silence and wished that he knew what the other was thinking. But he didn't. Aizawa wasn't even looking at him.

"Stop-just- just stop, kid. You _aren't_ going to die and it doesn't matter if you _don't_ have a quirk. It'll be harder for you than anybody else because of that but it doesn't mean that you deserve to die. Get that bullshit out of your head and think. You're helping people. You're saving people. If you don't want to live for yourself, then live for them. But don't ever think you deserve to die just because you're a quirkless kid with a tragic backstory and it fucking fits. You're more than that, Midoriya. You just need time to see it."

Izuku blinked, mouth open slightly as he stared at the other. Aizawa glanced at him before rolling his eyes and shifting on the stool to face him.

"Midoriya, my quirk does nothing but put myself and whoever I'm fighting with, on equal ground. That is all it is. Take that away, take that equal footing away, and I am quirkless. I'm still a pro-hero and I still save lives. Do I deserve to die?"

Midoriya shook his head rapidly, "What? No! No-why would you-"

Aizawa cut it almost brutally, "Then why do you?"

Midoriyas hands shook as he brought them to his eyes. He waited for the other to say something- or, maybe he was hoping that this never happened. He didn't know. All he knew was that his head was full and he wanted to stop crying.

"Patrol starts in an hour. Are you coming or not?"

Midoriya looked up, blinking away tears. Aizawa had moved to the living room and was looking back expectantly. Izuku felt more tears come to his eyes as he nodded. He didn't say anything, his voice having cracked enough in the past twenty minutes. He looked up again when the wall was pounded on.

"Do the dishes then suit up. We don't have all night."

Izuku didn't move for a couple minutes, the insistent ticking of the wall seeming like a death sentence to him. He got to his feet sluggishly and to the sink. He sprayed off the plates and chopsticks on auto pilot before putting them in the dishwasher and starting it.

He leaned against the sink for about six ticks, he noted, before turning the water back on and washing his face. He turned it off and cleared his throat. He dried his wet hands on his pants before pulling his phone out. Scrolling through his contacts, he clicked on one before putting it to his ear.

"Midoriya?"

The teen sniffed before he replied. "I need Kios number, Tsukauchi."

As expected, the other hesitated. "…Are you sure, Midoriya? You really don't need to, you can just go to UA and-and relax, for a bit and-"

"I need Kios number, Naomasa. Please."

He heard shuffling and Midoriya blinked away his exhaustion. After another moment, he heard the line crackle again.

"(802)-548-2095."

Midoriya hummed, already having memorized the number. "Thanks."

The teen stayed on the call for another moment before hanging up. He stared at his phone for a second, then looked down the hall. A small flame of determination lit in dark emeralds as he turned back to his phone and dialed the number. He held it to his ear and waited.

"Hello?"

Midoriya huffed through his nose, "Kio, it's Midoriya."

The elder hummed pleasantly. "Did you decide?"

Izuku nodded, despite the other not able to see the action. He bit his tongue roughly before he spoke.

"I'm in, Kio. I'm- I'm in."

The other made another pleased sound. "You going out tonight?"

Izuku shook his head, not even asking how the other knew that. "Yeah."

He wasn't asking for permission and the other knew it. The chief of police only grunted in approval. "I'll give you the license tomorrow. Same time?"

Izuku was about to decline when the other spoke again.

"I'll bring Joes too. You want anything special?"

Midoriya thought back to that morning. In the end he decided that one night without sleep wouldn't be too bad. It wasn't anything he hadn't done before.

"Do they have hash browns?"

Kio snorted, "Only the best."

Midoriya huffed quietly and slid the phone back into his pocket before moving to his room. Even with his exhausted features and tear stained cheeks, a small smile lit his face as he pulled his gear out.


	11. Thrown

Izuku tried his hardest to get comfortable on the bumpy road that led them to wherever it was they were going. He was currently taking a nap because he was tired. Very, very tired. He was also cradling his ribs. He didn't regret going out last night with Aizawa, not in the least. But he did regret antagonizing the villain.

If you could even call it that. The guy was drunk and threw a brick at his stomach. And he was a big guy. So, it hurt. A lot.

Kiri-something was sitting next to him and Bakugou was in front of them with tape dude. The lightning guy was taking up a whole row in front of them. Their arguments were background noise as he tried to sleep, but a small part of him was annoyed by it.

"You sick, Shithead?"

Izuku shook his head at Bakugous question.

"Why you holdin' your stomach then?"

Midoriya groaned. You couldn't blame him for his lack of filter. Six hours of shuteye in the past three nights wasn't ideal by anybody's standards. But add that to all the heart-to-hearts he's had and all that shit, he was tired.

"Got hit with a brick."

"Woah, dude, seriously?"

Midoriya hummed, lifting his shirt a bit to show them the bruise that, to be honest, wasn't that bad. His other suit blocked most of the force behind the, uh, attack, but it was still quite colored. And pretty big.

"Shit! How did that happen?"

Midoriya groaned, eyes gazing out the window as he thought about what to say. He let his shirt fall back down. "I ran into it."

He was met with silence, which was fine. He didn't exactly lie. But admittedly, running towards a big, burly, drunk while holding a brick wasn't his best idea. Either way, he technically ran into it.

"Are you stupid?"

Izuku snorted. He sat up, giving up on sleep. The others were still looking at him, waiting for an answer but he only shrugged. He merely blinked at their annoyed expressions.

"We're here."

Midoriya stood, stretching at Aizawas comment. He made a move to follow Kiri-something, vision darkening for a moment. The red head caught him before he could fall and Midoriya grimaced.

"Sorry."

The red head frowned. "You ok, man? Maybe you should ask Aizawa to sit out on this one."

Midoriya met Aizawas gaze at the front of the bus before the teacher stepped down and off, other students following.

Midoriya turned back to Kiri-something. "I'll be fine, thanks."

The red head frowned and let his arm go. Now that Midoriya was paying attention, he could see that Bakugou wasn't impressed. He rose a brow, silently asking what his problem was. The blonde scoffed and shouldered past the other two.

Izuku really, really needed to learn peoples names.

"Oh my god, it's Thirteen!"

Midoriya somehow migrated near Ochako or vice-versa. The bubbly girl was jumping in place and her eyes were lit with absolute excitement. Midoriyas lips twitched and his shoulders slumped. He leaned closer to her, "You should ask for their autograph."

The girls attention snapped to him and seemed to debate something. She pulled on her hands in a familiar clap sans one finger. "Should I?"

Honestly, Midoriya meant it as a joke. But the girl clearly idolized this certain hero. In the end, he nodded. Uraraka grinned at him as a flame of determination entered her eyes. He mentally snorted in amusement.

When he turned back, his gaze automatically went past the space hero to the center of the USJ. He blinked, taking a half second to wonder about the black mist before he took a step forward. His voice was filled with panic.

"Aizawa!"

See, the thing is this. Midoriya had lived with Aizawa for about a month now and had worked with him several times. With that shout alone, instead of being confused or worried, the elder immediately looked to where the teen was pointing because (not that he would ever publicly broadcast this,) but he trusted Midoriya.

Because of that trust that they have built in each other, again, it always went unsaid, Aizawa leaped into action. Literally.

"Thirteen! Evacuate the students, I'll take care of this!"

Midoriya cursed, something eerily familiar developing in his stomach as the other met his eyes before the man took the stairs four at a time. Midoriya blinked, face feeling heavy before he lifted it to look at his classmates. They looked as terrified as he felt.

Maybe.

Was he scared?

He couldn't even tell.

"Run!"

Students immediately started to follow but Midoriya was frozen. His gaze turned back on Aizawa who was stuck in the middle of who-knows how many villains. The others didn't get too far.

"Greetings, students. I must ask that you stay. At least until the Symbol of Peace arrives."

Midoriyas mind wilted because of course. Of course, it was about All Might. When is it not about the number one?

"Silence, villain!"

Midoriya watched as Thirteen activated their quirk just as Bakugou and Kiri started to run. A scream tore its way up his throat as he ran after them. For such a short distance, time seemed slow. They were planning on ambushing the villain though, that much was clear given that they were running from different sides.

Bakugou was stubborn. Hardheaded to a near fault. He didn't know Kiri. He didn't know. But he knew Bakugou, even if it was from years ago. He'd hope the other had better sense then the blonde.

His arms wrapped around Bakugou and the sudden explosions surprised him, burned him and made him wince but he didn't let go. He grit his teeth before shouting, "Red, stop!"

Praise small mercies. The red head faltered, tumbling and ended up on his knees. They all watched, Bakugou calming as much as the teen could.

Izukus mind whirled when he saw another portal come out of nowhere, right behind Thirteen. His eyes burned and Midoriya felt useless. He yelled anyway, even with the small part of his mind confirming that he would be too late.

"Thirteen, no! He's-"

Midoriya gripped Bakugou tighter when Thirteen screamed. And screamed. Raw and pained as their own quirk was used against them. He heard crying, possibly, from somewhere behind him. He noted that Katsuki sagged almost boneless before he found his footing again.

Thirteen slumped to the floor, silent as crimson flowed to a pool.

"Well. I'm sure that will get All Mights attention."

Nobody was able to respond for a moment.

"_You bastard!"_

Bakugous choked explanation brought Izuku back to reality. Feeling the blonde shift, Midoriya tightened his grip again until letting him go. Green eyes met red in warning and Bakugou hissed before standing by his side. Midoriya looked at Old Smokey.

What the hell was he supposed to do?

"Why-what- why are you he-here?"

Izuku eyed Kiri from the corner of his eye. Smokey turned to Red in amusement. The already pale teen turned paler. Izuku scowled, taking a step forward.

"Hey, asshole. What do you want?"

Smoky turned to him with a sigh. He turned again, somewhere near Aizawa. Izuku grit his teeth, "Hey!"  
Bakugou sucked his teeth but Izuku ignored it. Smokey gestured to the arena.

"We are all very disappointed in All Mights absence."

Midoriya ignored the burn of bile and worked with it. "What do you want with him?"

The other hummed and took a step forward. Bakugou went to follow but Izuku held his arm in front of him. Bakugou slapped it away with a glare the other could feel but stayed where he was.

"We want to kill him, of course."

The cries from behind him got louder and Izuku worried about Bakugous stillness. His face was drawn completely blank.

Midoriya didn't think that Bakugous quiet could scare him as much as it was. But here he was. He took a small step in front of the other. The blonde didn't even seem to notice.

Despite all his experience, which was much, much more than the other students had, Izuku had no idea what to do. Talk? Fight? …Leave? Escape?

What the hell was he supposed to do?

His mind whirled and –

"I-I there's no reception! I can't get through to the police!"

Smokey laughed at the teens words. Midoriya glanced back to the kid with the electricity quirk. If- fuck. This was not good. Think!

"You just gonna babysit us then? You killed Thirteen, you gonna kill Erasurehead too?"

The other laughed, almost delighted. Or amused. Midoriya hated it.

"That would be a bonus, but, really, I didn't mean to kill this hero. Shigaraki would be so happy with the bonus points. Whatever that means."

Midoriya tried not to show his fear. He could feel the inquiring gaze of Katsuki, seeing how close they were he could probably feel the change. Midoriya forced himself to relax. The gaze turned to a glare.

"Shigaraki? He your boss?"

The other scoffed and the teen noted it. The relationship between this guy and Shigaraki wasn't a good one then. Maybe he could use that.

"I'm getting annoyed with your chatter."

Midoriya laughed lightly, "You and me both."

He could feel the deadpan from the other and he shuffled on the balls of his feet. After yet another moment of thinking, Midoriya decided to screw it.

He stood before relaxing. With a slouch and his eyes lidded. "I don't suppose you would let us go."

The other laughed, "Not a chance."

Midoriya nodded. He could only think of one way out of this. And it wasn't a very good one by many standards. There were several ways to do that one way but- not everybody would be able to escape. But somebody needed to. They needed help.

Iida.

Engine.

Speedy.

Midoriya bounced, grin as he fell into a familiar routine. Probably not the best thing to do, given that the other may report it back to Shigaraki. Leaving them to find out who Midorikari really is, but…

You can't have everything.

"Speedy, run for the exit and get help. Ready, Asshole?"

The villain bristled, not noticing Katsuki shift into a more relaxed stance.

"I will not! I need to help and-"

"We will all die if you don't."

The platform at the top of the training center fell silent. Midoriya quickly found Iidas panicked gaze and sent him a grin. Izuku realized that he smiled at the face of death more than anything.

"Be a hero, Iida."

The panic left his eyes but the nod was shaky. Midoriya would take what he could.

"I won't allow you to escape. You-"

Bakugous blasts cut him off and Izuku waited half a second to find Katsukis approach. He was going above, Izuku bolted low. Katsuki went for where the head would supposedly go. Hoping to burn his face off but Izuku opted for going after what he could see.

It may be stupid of him, reckless, even. But he didn't pull his knives or tanboes out. The league knew enough about his alter ego to want to recruit him. So even if he changed the quarter staff for tanboes, there was still the chance that the knives would be recognized.

Midoriya grunted as he body slammed the much bigger body down.

Izuku didn't have much of a plan. Just not to get killed and don't let anybody else die, pretty much.

The teen knew that he should work on his surroundings more but, well. He's worked with Eraserhead who, during their patrols (for lack of a better term) would stay behind.

They didn't want to be seen with each other, after all.

But when they did fight together, one of them was always close range and the other was support. That's how Izuku adjusted from working alone to working with somebody.

Izuku was fighting close range. Katsuki is a close range fighter.

Midoriya didn't even notice that they had gotten closer and closer to the edge of the steps until he was falling down. His nails digging into the…body, of the bad guy and his curses loud in his ear.

Midoriyas stomach would rather meet a dozen bricks then deal with those stairs again.

"You know, kid, I'm a really patient person but you're making me mad."

Izuku grinned through the blood as he met the others faint, purple eyes. "I get that a lot."

Suddenly they were at the top of the stairs again and Izuku was greeted to a wonderful sound.

"Deku! Four-eyes got out!"

It was followed by the sound of the large doors shutting. The purple eyes glowed brighter with anger and Izuku, despite his best efforts, started to laugh.

"You're fucked now."

The next thing Izuku knew was that all his peers were done in a flash of black. Bile rose in his throat but couldn't go anywhere because he couldn't breathe. He was thrown to the floor, quickly climbing to his knees and arms and threw up.

He eyed the bile and blood in distaste before standing, spitting for good measure when he met familiar gaunt eyes.

Even though he was the only one who knew it.

"This kid let another escape. It was Ingeniums brother. Backup will be here soon."

The older teen let out an aggravated job. "You had one job, Kurogiri. One job."

The voice that replied was tense. "And this kid pushed me down the stairs."

The other snorted, "Useless. If you weren't our exit, I'd kill you."

Midoriya looked around as covertly as possible before he stopped on Aizawa.

Who was on the floor, _in_ the floor. Not moving save for the steadily growing pile of blood.

"Erasure?"

His choked question dragged the other two out of their squabble. Shigarakis face turned to delight. "Oh, was he your hero?"

Blank emeralds didn't show any sign of recognition from the mans taunt. He could only focus -barely at that- on the fact that the pro hero wasn't moving. Aizawa wasn't moving. Why-

"Nomu! C'mere boy!"

Midoriya struggled for air, the lump in his throat only seeming to grow. He turned back to Shigaraki, or more specifically, the loud thumps.

Izuku followed through with the push, barely catching his footing. A sense of heaviness clenched his neck in a vice grip. He was pushed onto his knees and forced into a bow.

Shigaraki looked at his unimpressed. "I don't like being ignored."

Midoriyas heart pounded, meeting blood eyes. "What did you do to him?"

Shigarakis smirk was merciless. "So, he was your hero, huh."

Midoriya stood shakily, stepping out of smokies grip and glared for all it was worth. His lips quirked at the shuffle of movement it earned.

"Nomu."

The stomping returned and somehow, for some fucking reason, Midoriya missed the monster- the nomu. His eyes widened and his stomach dropped.

What in the hell was he supposed to do with _that_?

"Kill him."

"Wait, what?!"

Shigarakis gaze was bored more than anything as the so called nomu ran passed him like a bull. Midoriya ran two steps before the smokey villain brought him back. Right into the path of the nomu once more.

The next thing Midoriya knew, he was crashing through villains and was halfway into the wall. The only thing Izuku wanted at this point was to breathe and not think.

His head hurt.

His limbs trembled as he debated just staying where he was. It was nice and- and so was air.

In the already dark, darkness seemed to cloud his vision as his fingers struggled to grip the crumbled cement and push himself out. Once he was out and -he had most definitely broken stuff- he realized he was several feet from ground level.

Slow warmth treaded down his temples and seeping into fabric. Izuku could barely process the pain he was so numb, let alone think. What he could, brought tears to his eyes. He wanted to wake up in the still hard to sleep in comfortable bed and find Aizawas attempt of making breakfast to be cereal. He wanted to argue with the man about the grades that he wanted to give out. He wanted-

He wanted to go out at night and listen to the mans advice. To shuffle home -home- and fall into bed. Get woken up by the damned spray bottle, get in the shower and slip. He wanted to go home.

That was all.

"You know, for someone who caught Kurogiri you're kind of a disappointment."

Midoriya could relate. He shakily brought himself up to his arms to do something other than taste concrete when footsteps stopped a few feet in front of him. There was a groan before he was kicked back down, being blinded by the skylights that covered the dome ceiling.

He coughed weekly, not making a move to get up because it didn't work out very well the first time. Shigarakis face came into his view, annoyance now evident. Midoriya missed the boredom.

"Get up."

Midoriya scoffed, opening his mouth to say something passed the pain when the chapped features twisted again. Three fingers and a thumb found purchase around his neck before his head smashed against the wall again. He winced, "Ow."

Green eyes squinted, heart racing. His feet were touching the floor and he found enough strength to stand by himself. He needed another minute to figure out what the hell to do. Opening his eyes a bit further, he shivered when he saw Aizawa in the distance, Nomu standing nearby like a guard dog.

"Kurogiri is usually good at his job, as much as I hate to admit. There has to be something special about you."

Midoriya laughed, "There really isn't."

The male only hummed, finger tapping against the youngers pulse. Izuku tried not to move, his mind clearing enough to recognize the severity of the situation he was in. He opened his eyes further when the other spoke again.

"I don't like humble people. You remind me of somebody. Who is it?"

Izukus mouth twisted, "I don't know. Your mom?"

The hand pushed harder on his throat enough for him to choke. The other hummed pleasantly, contrasting with the glare. The tapping stopped.

"I was gonna say All Might but you have a spine."

Midoiryas eyes widened and whatever emotion overrode sensible logic caused him to slap the others arm away before kicking him in the chest before flipping off the wall several feet away.

Red eyes glistened as he rubbed his chest. "Another All Might fan, tch. I thought you'd be different."

Izuku stood to his full height, which while wasn't usually impressive, held an almost intimidating factor to it. The teen pushed away his own feelings as much as he could and stuffed them in the deepest corner of his mind.

It came with practice.

Despite it all, his voice still came off as a growl. "Don't compare me to him."

The hand stopped, pinky straight it the air before the limb fell to his side. A grin slowly grew, "Why?"

Midoriya honestly couldn't answer that. He didn't want to. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about All Might. Because-wait.

All Might.

Speedy had gotten out.

There was going to be backup.

And… chances are… that it would be All Might.

Izuku didn't answer, swallowing once more before inhaling. He glanced around, carefully avoiding Aizawa until he had to. Most of the low lives that were around this area only moments before were gone. Save for the few crumpled to the floor, he assumed those were the ones he ran into when the nomu had shoved him.

There weren't any other students around, but he heard fighting. And yelling. He looked back to Shigaraki. How was he supposed to go about this?

Stall. Probably. It wasn't like he could leave everybody else to die.

Not Aizawa. Not Bakugou. Not Red or Gravity.

He just had to get enough time for- to not die.

That was it.

"What do you want?"

The teen frowned unhappily with his own question going unanswered but complied. His arms opened as if holding every answer to the universe.

"I've come to kill the Symbol of Peace. I'm here to kill All Might."

Midoriya hummed shortly, going to pull on the hood when he noticed it wasn't in place. He froze unnoticeably before sliding it back. "What did he do to you?"

The other stopped, confused before his brows scrunched in anger. "I don't need to explain myself to you."

Izuku shrugged before stopping because ow. He could feel the shift in the air that told that the others patience had run out and he mentally cursed. He really expected that to last longer.

"Whatever. Nomu! Finish the job!"

Shigaraki turned to walk back to the middle of the arena. Back to Aizawa. Nomu ran back toward Midoriya and he let out a deep breath, trying not to think past his own instincts. He took a step back and relished in the fact that smoky wasn't there to stop him.

Midoriya opened his thigh holster and pulled out two of the push knifes and wielded them with as much confidence as one could in this situation. He made sure to hold one in a regular forward grip while the other was in a reverse grip. He tried to not feel intimidated when the thing that was four times his size came running at him with nothing but murder in its eyes.

"Okay, deep breaths. Alright, one, two and-."

With timing that came with practice, Izuku ran before jumping and wrapping his thighs around the gnarly neck and sticking the knifes in its eyes before jumping back down and dragged the knifes as far and deep as it would go with him.

The creature shrieked, howling in pain and pawing at its own eyes. Midoriya took a deep breath and ignored his ankle. He stepped back for more distance, keeping an eye on it as it ran in circles before inevitably calming as if nothing happened.

Shit.

"You know, he's pretty amazing. He's gonna be the one to kill All Might after all."  
Double shit. That explains it.

The thing picked up speed again and Midoriya felt another drop of doubt before he pushed it away once more. It wouldn't help anything in the end. This needed all his focus. Just before Izuku was going to meet it halfway, he noticed that its path was off course.

Izukus mouth dropped slightly as his eyes snapped to its eyes and yes, its eyes were darker and hazier. Midoriya felt a hysterical giggle come up his throat because he had most definitely blinded the fucker. That meant that, unless it had a quirk aimed towards sensory, he was going off of its sense of hearing and smell.

He could handle that.

Slowing his breath into soft pants, he noticed the subtle shift from the creature before switching course again. It didn't last very long, however, given that Izuku ran straight for him but it gave him a much needed edge.

The jump was awkward this time, almost getting no grip and immediately falling back down but he had succeeded in getting one of the knifes in its ear and the other in its brain.

Honestly, he felt embarrassed about not thinking about the brain beforehand, given that it didn't have a skull. He had been going off of uh, normal anatomy. However, the nomu was slapping its ear and completely ignoring the knife that was still stuck in its brain.

Izuku let out a harsh breath, wiping the blood and whatever else was on the single knife on his pants while his other went for the last knife still in the pouch. He noted that he would be needing more than three knifes from now on.

He paused slightly as he eyed the nose. It was more of a snout or beak. He switched both blades to be in reverse grip. His pinky resting comfortably on a curve right before the blade and he took another breath before running yet again at the creature before it could get used to what damage had been done.

Midoriya only managed to use the ball at the end of the knife to the things temple before he was swatted off to the side. His breath caught, knifes clattering away from him as he winced.

"Izuku!"

Midoriyas eyes snapped open, sitting up and sure enough Katsuki and Kiri were running at him, eyes wide with fear, though the blonde most definitely hid it better. He stood shakily, them stopping a couple feet away from him. Midoriya glanced at the roar from a few dozen yards away. His mouth twitched with lack of words.

"You look like shit."

Izuku turned to the blonde, green eyes wide with disbelief. "Are you shitting me right now?!"

They both took a step back, surprised at his yelling given the fact that he hardly even spoke in class. Hearing a now familiar thump of steps, Midoriya turned, jaw setting when he saw the nomu running again. He stepped between it and the two teens. He sent Bakugou a harsh look.

"Stay back."

"Wha-no! Izuku!"

The greenette ignored it, arms going behind his back for the tanboes as he ran forward. He winced minutely as his hand slip and- yeah. His hands were sweat slicked and blood slicked and it really wasn't working with a weapon that had nothing to stop his hands from slipping.

Sliding underneath the giants legs, he regripped before jumping back up. The monster turned, annoyed that it didn't catch its prey. Midoriya ran further away from the two teens who in his mind, were complete and utter idiots.

Happy with the distance, he slid to the side again and was very uncomfortable with the lack of distance. Mouth twisting in displeasure, he shuffled back yet again before running, jumping forward and threw all his weight forward with the two tanboes just at high enough to reach the bottom of its brain.

Completely by surprise, Midoriyas knees clenched around the monsters waist as he fell forward. The monsters eyes rolled back and Izukus fists touched soft brain tissue.

He gagged and could only stay there for a minute, waiting for the creature to get up. It didn't.

Izuku slid off, sliding the tanboes back quickly before ripping his knife out and looked back to the two teens who, he would think, came to his supposed rescue.

His heart stopped.

The two were engaging Shigaraki who was annoyed, glaring at _him_, seeing that the nomu was dead.

The two didn't know what his quirk was. They didn't know that they could die in an instant. That there wouldn't even be a body left for their family because they'd be gone. They'd be ash.

Somehow, seeing his childhood friend work flawlessly with another as they danced with death made him all the more desperate to stop anybody from getting hurt. To stop them from getting hurt.

With absolutely no care of his own survival, Midoriya once again body slammed a villain that day. Shigaraki howled with pain and anger. Izuku easily found ground over the other and pinned his arms above his head and away from him.

"Izuku!"

Midoriya met absolutely furious eyes before he turned to Katsuki.

"Katsuki! Stay out of this! Get-get Aizawa out of here!"

Kiri turned but the blonde didn't, the red heads mouth opened in horror and began tugging on Bakugous arm.

"We can beat him together, idiot! I'm not just gonna leave you with handsy!"

Midoriya winced, the other trying to buck him off and banged his head down on the others nose, satisfied with the crunch that followed. As Shigaraki screamed in pain, Midoriya held both hands in one of his own as the other reached for his knife before holding it not to his throat but to his hands.

He had never felt as relieved as he did in the moment that the teen below him stilled as if frozen. Midoriya bared his teeth in victory. He didn't break eye contact as he yelled back to Bakugou.

"I've got him, but Iida will be back with back-up soon and if Aizawa doesn't get it fast, he'll die."

He was met with silence. The teen under him practically seething.

"Bakugou, he's right. We-we'll come right back. But we can't let him die."

"What would your mom think about you throwing away your life, huh? Think she'd like that shit?"

Izukus breath stilled and he blinked rapidly. Shigaraki stilled, narrowing his eyes before clearly fighting off a smile or smirk or some shit. Izuku licked his lips.

"And what would your mom do without her son?"

Shigaraki rolled his eyes but Izuku ignored it. Time seemed to tick by before the other answered. His voice filled with something that Izuku didn't think too much on it.

"You better not fucking die on me, shithead."

Midoriya laughed dryly, still maintaining eye contact with the other. He heard shuffling and a faint groan that was honestly music to his ears.

"We'll come back for you, Midori! I promise!"

Midoriya didn't answer the other, throat only tightening while the other seemed to be gaining his barring's.

"You pissed off Kurogiri," the icy haired teen stated. "You don't like All Might. You killed my Nomu. You annoy me but…"

Midoriya swallowed as the other seemed to study him. For his own comfort, he dug the knife deeper into the wrists. The skin just barely cut and the other seemed to decide on what he was thinking because he grinned a grin that would forever haunt Midoriya.

"I think I like you."

Izuku panted shakily through his nose. "Flattered, really."

The other started laughing, eyes lit with manic. "Kurogiri! You can play with him! I want to see you play with him!"

Midoriya swallowed, confused at first before he saw a flash of black and he was falling at a very high speed towards the ground. A scream erupted from his throat and his eyes began to water. Right before he hit ground, another portal sent him crashing into the wall.

His breath hitched into a semi-sob as he felt all of his front teeth shift and he tasted iron. Another portal sent him to his back, hitting his head and the familiar black smoke and purple eyes came into view.

"I don't like to play games but this will be fun."

Midoriya only had the chance to see a series of portals erupt, the mans eyes turning to an almost white before he had the worst case of vertigo he had ever had.

He didn't know how long it went for, only that blood was rushing to his head, he had thrown up on several pit stops and that he had blacked out several times only to wake up from faceplanting into some sort of cement. It stopped.

It finally, finally stopped.

Midoriya didn't have the energy to move to his side or get up, too tired to swallow down the bile and once again, he was choking. An almost tender hand pushed him to his side. He threw up several times before he was pushed back onto his back. He could feel acid roll down his chin and jaw.

Shigaraki smiled, still manic and tears blurred green eyes.

"You know, I really don't like to get dirty but- you've annoyed me."

Izukus breathing came as a sob. He didn't know what the other meant, didn't want to. But he found out soon enough when a fist smashed into his cheek.

It wasn't the worst hit he'd taken, far from it. But they continued to come and come before the other started to alternate fists. Midoriya was nothing but a doll. If he could pass out, he would but he only lived on that line of reality and fantasy. Blissful sleep and horrific livelihood.

He just wanted this to end.

The punching stopped and he felt himself getting lifted and gently pushed against the wall. His head lolled and his eyes were both swollen shut but were forced to stay open.

Red eyes had gained some note of clarity. A finger trailed down his cheek before they gripped his chin.

"What is your name?"

It took a moment to get his mouth to work but when it did, his voice was nothing but heated hate, "Fuck you."

The other huffed softly through his nose. He caressed his cheek again but Midoriya was too tired to fight it. The other pressed his arm harder against his chest, causing a whole new struggle for breath and pain.

"It doesn't matter. I'll find out eventually."

The doors banged open. And by the voice, Midoriya knew that it was All Might.

"Fear not! For I am here!"

Green was still glued to red and Midoriya wanted to smirk or smile or show anything that would show that he hadn't been beaten. Even though he knew he was. They both did. But Izuku wanted, no, needed to show it.

"Kurogiri, your honor."

Midoriya only saw black that covered the grey that was previous cement by Shigaraki. The next thing he knew, something pierced him through his stomach and to the wall. His mouth dropped, heaving for air.

Shigaraki stepped back, hand up in a wave. "See you soon."

There was a flash of black and a moment later a flash of gold and blue and warmth before it all fell into a cold darkness.


	12. Sleep is Fleeting

The sleeping teen knew where he was before he even woke up. Chemicals made his nose itch and the insistent beeping only added to his pounding headache. Despite the part of him that just wanted to fall back into the comfort of the dark, he forced his eyes to open. It took several tries but eventually, he was greeted to white.

He swallowed with difficulty, mouth full of cotton and with effort, he turned his neck to look around the room. He blinked upon seeing Aizawa, completely fine, but asleep in the chair. The man was surrounded by at least half a dozen cups of cheap, hospital coffee.

His shoulders sagged with relief and he took a moment to just watch the other sleep and take in the other. There was a scar under his eye, which was new but other than that, he looked fine. Midoriya hoped that was so.

Izuku closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and tried speaking a few times before he could get past choked sound of 'ugh.'

He winced, frowning and looked down at himself. He could feel some bandaging on his face and his hands were wrapped but his arms looked fine. Taking a deep breath and holding it in, he sat up, no air for a wince, before slowly letting it out. His eyes scrunched in pain and he gave himself a minute. Or two.

Head feeling heavy, he pulled the itchy blanket and useless sheet off him and blinked. Before blinking again.

He wasn't in a typical hospital gown, in fact, he was only in white boxers and miscellaneous bandages that littered his torso and thighs. He swallowed shakily, face pinched and something pulled but he ignored it.

He…didn't want to be here.

He reached over and turned off the machine. When he sat back, he pulled out the IV with little wince. He looked back up, sweat gathering on his brow and winced. He glanced back at Aizawa and jumped when he saw that he was awake.

"Kid."

Midoriya put a hand to his chest, "Shit."

Izuku cleared his throat, wincing at his own chopped talking. He took the cup from the other with a nod of thanks. He drank it slowly before greedily once it didn't burn his cracked throat.

He leaned back, panting slowly as he looked at the other. "So…how long was I out?"

Aizawa looked at him blankly before turning. "I need coffee."

Midoriya frowned slightly, "Get me one, too."

A hand was his response and he leaned back onto the pillow. He looked around a bit before his eyes landed on Aizawas phone. He rose a brow, glancing out the doorway before reaching over to grab it.

He whistled lowly before setting it back. He had been out for nine days. Longer then when he was shot. For some reason, that surprised him.

"Here you go."

Midoriya took the coffee and sipped. Aizawa winced as he drank his own, Midoriya snorted. The other ignored it and sat back down, silent. Izuku shrugged, not meeting the others eyes.

"I see you're fine now."

The others eyes then practically glowed with annoyance (concern) as he stood back up. "Are you kidding me, kid? What in the hell possessed you to go against Shigaraki?"

Izuku rose a brow, "Uh…was I supposed to let somebody else handle it? Thirteen was dead and you were gone. I…don't know what you would have wanted me to do."

Aizawa didn't talk for a moment. "Thirteen lived."

Midoriya nodded, looking out the window. It was easier then looking at the other. It was evening. He should have checked the time when he took Aizawas phone.

"You broke four ribs, your femur, radius and your lung collapsed. You also dislocated your shoulder and you cracked your skull. You've had a concussion but the doctors said that you'd wake up when the severity went down. Here we are."

Midoriya nodded, brows raised in surprised. He looked back down at himself. His tongue itched and he pressed against the bandage a few inches away from his navel.

"And this?"

Cause it was pretty big and to be honest, it hurt.

A lot.

Aizawas tone was flat. "Kurogiri stabbed you with a piece of rebar. Toshinori rushed you to the hospital. You almost died. Several times."

Midoriya waited for a bit more before he shrugged. His head was still swimming.

"I'm sorry? I did what I was supposed to do."

The longer the silence went on the worse his headache got. Eventually, Aizawa stood, chair falling with a clang and Midoriya winced.

"I can't deal with this."

The words struck Izuku and he barely managed to hide the hurt.

"What was I supposed to do, Erasure? Huh? What was I supposed to do!?"

Aizawa turned back to him, silent, before he walked down the hallway.

"I'm signing you out. Get dressed."

Midoriya sniffed, flinching when the door shut unkindly. He sat for a few more minutes. His mind whirled and he sat up. He pushed everything else down as he did what was asked. It was more autopilot then anything.

He got dressed into soft sweats and a hoody. He took a deep breath. There- there wasn't anything he could do about Aizawa. Not right now anyway and- he took a deep breath as he looked in the mirror. If nobody else had gotten seriously hurt, sans him, but if that was it then…

He would do it all again. With nothing changed.

Izuku sighed in resignation, finger tracing one of the many butterfly bandages lining his face before pulling them off one by one. If Aizawa wanted to be mad then…fine by him.

It- that's fine. It was all just fine.

The teen tsked, taking in his face now with no bandages. He had a cut across his eyebrow on his left eye, along with a jagged one on his lip. His eyes flitted to the other side, where there was one that went from below his temple to his cheekbone. It wasn't a flat scar, it jittered in and out like a demented version of connect the dots.

"Oh god."

He groaned, inhaling deeply and pushed his hair out of his face. It was getting long. His eyes narrowed, grabbing a strand and pulling it down. It was to his shoulders.

He looked around, hoping for something to hold his hair back before his eyes landed on the bathroom cupboard. He walked over, thigh bandages pulling as he opened it. He should have just taken them off…

His lips quirked when he found a huge white elastic from the 1980's or something. Pretty ancient. Either way, he slid it onto his wrist before pulling his hair into some sort of bun then tying it. The door was knocked on.

"You ready, Midoriya?"

Izuku eyed the door before glancing back at the mirror. He's like mini Frankenstein or some shit.

"Yeah."

He opened the door, side stepping the elder and slipped on the hospital shoes. There weren't any in the bag that the other had brought. Izuku clapped, both of them still avoiding eye contact.

"Ready when you are."

He followed Aizawa. His hand went up in some sort of gesture. "We need to stop by the pharmacy on our way home. The doctors given you sleeping pills and pain meds."

Midoriya rose a brow in confusion. "Sleeping pills? Really?"

Aizawa glared at him before his attention went back to the hallway they were walking down. "Yes, sleeping pills. You'll need them."

Izuku frowned harshly and stopped. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Aizawa took a couple more steps before he turned back to him. "I mean that you just went through a trauma and I wouldn't be surprised if you've developed some PTSD. Don't be a brat about it and just take the meds."

Izuku took a deep breath and began to follow. He really wanted to refute, somehow, but he knew it wouldn't matter to the other. He huffed, "Whatever."

The ride home was quiet. Odd, given that it was in a car when Aizawa didn't own one. When he asked he said that it was Hizashis. It explained all the stickers.

When they got to the apartment Aizawa offered to get takeout but Midoriya declined. He had school the next day. Aizawa glared but Midoriya only rose a brow before going to his room. When he shut his door, he immediately faceplanted on his bed. After a moment he pulled his pillow to his chest and looked blankly out the window.

He turned to the closet where his vigilante costume was hung up. He blinked.

Could he even be called a vigilante when he was secretly working for the police department?

He rolled his eyes at his own thoughts and sat up, walking around the bed to pick his phone up from his desk where it was still charging from days ago. There were several messages from Tsukauchi and Kio, which he almost replied to but didn't.

He stopped on one that was from an unknown number. Pulling it up, his brows furrowed. What the hell?

_'Young Midoriya!_

_I hope you are doing well and that this message finds you in good spirits! I hope you heal well and return to school soon!'_

'_This is Toshinori, by the way.'_

'_I mean All Might!'_

'_But you can just call me Toshinori if you would like too.'_

'_Not that you have to! Just if you want! Or you can stay with All Might. Whatever works for you!'_

'_This is All Might Again, hope you are doing well! :}'_

' _:)'_

'_Did I do that right?'_

'_See you at school, young Midoriya!'_

Midoriya blinked. Rereading them once before doing it again. How did the other even get his number? Thinking about it, his tense expression eased.

Tsukauchi.

The teen let out a breath of sudden (not-so-sudden) exhaustion. He threw the phone on the floor before he slumped back on his bed. He blinked, dazed and tired. He reached for something on his nightstand before an old, half empty water bottle was in his grasp. Squinting through one eye, he found the light switch and aimed before throwing. The sound was louder than he thought it would be but it was dark.

He hummed to himself in the quiet before turning on his side. He fell asleep quickly.

Without the sleeping pills.

XXX

Come morning, Midoriya dragged himself to the bathroom half dead. His skin was pale and clammy from waking up with no breath and the feeling of…something. He didn't even know what it was but it was a lot. In the sense of-

Midoriya took a deep breath and stepped out of the shower. He brought the bandages out from under the sink before stopping. He looked at himself in the mirror, eyeing the wounds as he decided what to do. Most of them were healed, mostly just sore. The only one that was still red and fresh was the one where he was impaled.

That was a nice memory. That he remembered quite clearly. Now, at least.

Izuku let out another slow breath, hand going to the three faint circular marks from where he was shot. God, that felt like so long ago but it really wasn't. And here he was. Almost dead again.

How did he feel about that?

Midoriya tsked, pulling his school uniform on. He looked at himself in the mirror, face tense before he slowly took off the tie and undid the top two buttons. The idea of something around his throat wasn't very appealing. Despite knowing that forgoing the tie was against the dress code, he stuffed it in his blazer pocket.

He trekked the short walk to the kitchen and was surprised to find it quiet. He frowned, checking the time. Aizawa would just now be getting up now. He swallowed, feeling unsure but somehow positive at the same time. He walked back to the hall and before he could knock on Aizawas door, a note caught his attention.

So…Aizawa actually had left early.

Two hours early.

Izuku tsked, annoyed with Aizawa, this whole freaking situation and maybe, just maybe, himself. He went back into his room, grabbing his backpack where it was mostly empty before putting his laptop and charger in it. He slid his phone in his pocket and tied the familiar red sneakers on his feet. He grabbed the hospital scrunchy and stuffed the beanie in his backpack pocket. He admittedly slammed the apartment door shut as he made his way towards the train but-

He also, admittedly, didn't give a fuck right now.

He grabbed an iced coffee from one of the vending machines in the subway station before making his way to school. He paused mid-sip. Would the school even be open right now?

He shrugged, it beat being home and in bed. Actually, that sounded really nice. Why did he get up this early?

He ended up buying another coffee at the trainyard that he got off at. The walk to school was short and as he expected, there weren't any students but the cars and motorcycle that were pulled into the parking lot showed that there were enough teachers that the school should be open.

As he expected, the door was open. He walked through the hallways before he came across a quiet room that held several different stations and a lot of equipment. He set his backpack on the table and pulled out his laptop, plugging in his headphones and pulling his hair up.

He popped his mouth several times as he thought about what to work on. Aizawa hadn't mentioned any late work so he couldn't do any of that, nor did he have the desire to hunt the man down. In the silence his mind turned to the events of the USJ.

Ignoring his feelings, mental and physical, he realized that he needed to work on a lot of stuff. Pulling up a document, he brainstormed.

Falling down the stairs hurt. He needed to work on his surroundings. Come up with some sort of exercise that'll let him get it down easier. Not to say that he was bad at it or anything. But when he was in the middle of a fight, he tended to forget there was a giant staircase. For example.

The tanboes were another problem. He couldn't get a good enough grip on them. He had to come up with some sort of guard or handle. Or just something new all together. He hadn't really noticed it against Speedy and Gravity but he spent more time thinking with them then using them. Maybe it would be best to just come up with something else…

That would need more thought.

And so it continued until he had a pretty decent list. He yawned, sleep crawling back into his system but he pushed it down. Looking at the time, he noticed that he still had an hour until class started. That was great. Izuku absentmindedly rubbed his stomach. After a moment, an idea came to mind and he froze.

He pulled his headphones out before looking around. The door was shut and nobody else was here. The lights in the hallway were still off. Midoriya put his headphones back in, staring at the server screen as he gave himself a moment to not do this.

Once that moment passed, he pulled up the UA website and looked around before noticing the log in tab in the top right corner. He hummed, glancing around again before pulling it up. It was for administration only but…

He wondered.

While he may not be the best hacker in the city or anything, he definitely had experience. Not that he'd ever tell anybody. It was bad enough certain people knew that he stole equipment from a government facility. He still had no idea how he came out of that one alive.

Letting out a deep breath, he went through several hidden files and typed in several different passwords before he could open the database that he had created. Putting in whatever info he needed, he waited for it to load. Green numbers, letters and symbols came and went in a flash.

His feet swung idly before he decided to just try something. Out of all the teachers, most would be pretty good with this stuff. Passwords and Usernames, that is. The only one that he could think of who wasn't, was All Might.

He snorted, hands hesitating on the keyboard before he decided to try it. You had to have at least two tries to log in so it was more than likely that it would go unnoticed if he messed up.

_Username: All Might_

_Password: Plus Ultra_

Midoriya stared blankly at the screen for a moment before he shoved his fist in his mouth because holy- wow. That was worse than he thought. Izuku closed his database and popped his fingers, about to look into class 1-A because, let's be honest. He really, really needed to learn their names. Especially since they all had nine days to get to know each other. And he's had, like, three.

God. Now he sounded like he wanted to be their friends.

"Did you just hack into the UA database?"

Izuku yelped when somebody pulled out his headphones and said those words. His eyes were wide as they landed on a girl with bright pink hair, lively eyes and was in what looked like a mechanics uniform.

He shook his head, "No. I didn't."

The girl laughed loudly, turning on the lights and waved him off. "It's alright. I won't tell anybody. You know, unless you give me reason to."

A wrench suddenly appeared in her hand and she wielded it like a weapon. Izuku shook his head again, calmer this time. "I won't. I just- uh, to be honest, I'm pretty terrible with names. And I haven't been to school in about a week so…"

She nodded in understanding. A large box filled with who knows what was lifted onto the table effortlessly. "You don't want to look like an idiot in front of your classmates."

Izuku sweat dropped, "Pretty much."

The girl didn't seem to hear him and he nodded to himself. He unplugged the headphones and turned off the music however. He easily found his class and was (pleasantly) surprised that the man kept notes on each student. It didn't take long for him to memorize each name to the face.

He looked up, just in time for him to see her add the switch to whatever it is that she was making. He rose a brow, looking around the table and got a very, very loose idea of what it is.

"Why are you using a toggle switch?"

She looked up in almost confusion but it fell to annoyance when her eyes landed on him. "Why wouldn't I? It's a-"

"Liquefier, right? It's actually a pretty good idea. Especially since most nowadays they're all on generators if they use them at all. Most just deal with fires and everything if they have the quirk for it. Not to say it can't be used for anything else but, you know. A toggle switch is kinda pointless. May as well stick a light switch on it and call it good."

Her eyes narrowed and she threw the handle down, annoyed. "Well, pretty boy, in all your expertise, what would you do?"

Midoriya scoffed, lightly annoyed. "Pretty boy? Wow, uh…"

He leaned back, spinning on the stool and thought for a moment. He stopped and faced her. "I would do… a charge based button actually. Take it how you'd want, but I'd do two of them. People in fires get hot and sweaty, finding middle ground with a stick won't really be easy. Could cost lives and all that. Just a basic on and off. I don't know. You do you."

Midoriya looked back down on his laptop, not doing anything with it but rather thinking about what to do with what the other was talking about.

"It would be too easy for their costume equipment to push the stop button. How'd you fix that?"

Midoriya leaned back, agreeing somewhat reluctantly. He frowned, pulling out a notebook and started to sketch. It was rough. He really hadn't done this for a while.

"Can you make your own switches and scanners?"

The girl looked offended and he rolled his eyes, "Are you allowed to?"

The girl nodded, coming around to look at what he was doing, reluctance yet intrigue clear in his eyes.

Her eyes immediately widened, she could probably pick up on what it was but he found himself explaining.

"Make it bio-tech. It would be hard to be able to scan with heroes that wear gloves, but you only need to convince them to change whatever material is on their thumb to some sort of clear or heat suppressant material. As long as their finger is on the scanner, it'll work. Almost like a trigger in old firearms or something. But it should be small, not noticeable. I'd even throw in some sort of switch just to throw people off. People look at everything they see and try and make it work. If there's something obvious, they won't look for the hidden."

Her eyes sparkled and to his surprise, she kissed his cheek. He eyed her in somewhat discomfort but mostly amusement as she mumbled to herself. She looked back at him, tossing everything on the table away and getting a pre-cut blue print paper.

"Looks like you actually have a brain in there, pretty boy."

Izuku laughed quietly, "Why pretty boy?"

She was clearly not annoyed at the company now, even if it wasn't obvious before. She pointed to his face in several places with the end of her pencil. "You're kidding right? You look like the kids who'd ride a bike with tons of scars. You know, the one everybody wanted to fuck in the old movies."

He choked, pure laughter erupting and it was relieving. In an odd way. He had no idea when the last time it was that he laughed like this. He looked at her, actual grin on his face. "Oh my god."

She wriggled her brows teasingly before turning back to the paper. "Bet you have a bunch more, too. If I were straight I wouldn't have gone for the cheek."

Midoriya laughed again, clutching his stomach at her bluntness.

"So, what's your name? Not in support, which sucks. You already have more creativity and genius then my whole class and that includes Power Loader."

Izuku hummed, amused. "Midoriya Izuku. Heroics. 1-A."

She tsked, "Hatsume Mei, support. Obviously. Seriously sucks you aren't in support though."

Midoriya shook his head, shutting down his laptop. "I did a bunch of stuff like this when I was a kid. I used to analyze this shit like crazy."

She made a sound of disagreement but teasing. "Like what? Little robots out of mint cans?"

Midoriya nodded, deciding to roll with this. The girl already knew he hacked into the UA server. This couldn't be worse then that. "Actually, yes. And those are fun, by the way. Mine was a boat. But no, I was thinking more like an AI system. You know, the small things."

The pencil smacked down to the table as she gaped, "No way! How old were you? I always wanted to make one!"

Izuku hid his smile behind his backpack before he set it down and his smile dropped. "I don't know. I think I was ten? Eleven? It was so long ago."

She let out a shriek and hopped on the stool across from him. "How did you do it?"

Izuku made a noise as he thought. It was pretty hard to explain after all. "A lot of trial and error. I ended up actually taking a lot of software from laptops or downloading what I didn't have before I put it all on a motherboard and connected it to a live feed that was stored in an old motorcycle helmet that was sanded down."

She blinked before laughing, "Why would you need that? What feats were on it?"

Izuku ignored the first question. "Uh, night vision, obviously. I included thermo, a camera, audio and hooked it all up to an old flip phone."

She gaped, "No way! When you were ten? I was stuck on cars and games! And you were playing with AI ware? How is that fair?"

Izuku snorted but before he could talk, she pointed at him, victorious.

"And I totally called the bike!"

He gaped, "I was ten! I haven't ridden a bike! I can't even drive a car!"

She smirked again, "But you want to."

Midoriya opened his mouth to rebuttal but it closed with a defeated sound. She only laughed, blatantly checking him out. "Dude, you can totally pull off the leather too. You should get a tat too, you know. All or nothing."

Midoriya shook his head. "I could not pull off leather."

She gaped, almost scandalized, "Uh, yeah! You can!"

Midoriya shook his head, "I thought you said you weren't straight."

She looked at him like he was stupid, "Dude, I like boobs but I'm not blind. You are hot."

Izuku felt his cheeks get warm and checked the time for something else to focus on. He was surprised that class started in only twenty minutes.

"Oh my god, you don't see it."

Midoriya didn't respond and the other face planted on the wood before standing and going back to the blue print. "Boy, this is just sad."

Izuku looked at her annoyed, "Thank you. For this review, and everything, I should get to class."

She moaned, looking up, "No, don't leave me! I need to bounce ideas off of you and tell you how beautiful you are."

Izuku snorted, "I thought you said I was hot."

She shrugged, "You can be both, with your freckles you can totally pull off a dress but damn, you in leather? Mmm. Ooh! I know! What about a leather dress?"

Izuku rolled his eyes, giving up. "Whatever, I'll see you around, Hatsume."

"I'll find you at lunch, pretty boy! You can't escape me!"

He grinned over his shoulder, "Find me if you can."

The determination in her eyes would freak him out if he was sure that she wouldn't be able to find him.

"I'll find you, Midori!"

He shut the door behind him and headed towards his own classroom. He wasn't the first person in there and to his pleasure, he knew their names.

See, breaking into highly illegal servers could be used for good.

As much as he would love to say hi to them all. All meaning, Iida, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki and Koda, he settled for a nod. He had used just about all his social patience with Mei.

"Midoriya-san! You're back! Are you sure you shouldn't be resting?"

"Midoriya, I am very glad you're back but you are breaking the dress code and I cannot allow that. Please dress to the proper standards before I ask Aizawa-sensei to write you up."

Midoriya blinked mildly surprised at Iida before he nodded, "You're absolutely right, Iida-san. But I still have… seventeen and a half minutes until school officially starts so… I'm really not breaking any rules."

There was a small snort from behind him and he didn't know if it was Koda or Todoroki. He didn't care to check.

Yaoyorozu cleared her throat behind her hand, amusement dancing in her eyes. Iida glanced between the two of them nearly scandalized but he simply didn't have the words. The raven headed girl stepped up to his desk.

"Are you sure you're alright to be here, Midoriya-san? I'm sure any teacher will let you call home if you wish."

Midoriya nodded, "I will keep that in mind. Thanks."

She sent a concerned smile but took the dismissal politely. Iida still stuttered a few feet away before the door opened and in walked Bakugou. Izukus eyes widened slightly when he met narrowed eyes.

Bakugou walked towards him determined and Izuku mentally braced himself.

Bakugou stopped right in front of him, eyes blank. "You're coming over for dinner. You missed it over the weekend."

Izukus mouth opened and closed a couple times causing the other to raise a brow. Midoriya finally found his tongue. "Ye-yes. Sure. I will definitely do that."

The blonde nodded in satisfaction and sat in his own desk right next to him. Midoriya pursed his lips, fingers tapping on his thigh and ignored each wince the action brought. He reached into his backpack and pulled out his beanie before pulling it on.

"That is also against the dress code, Midoriya-san."

Bakugoa groaned, "Will you shut the fuck up, four eyes? Let the kid be. It's freaking cold outside."

Iida couldn't argue with that. He fell (softly, of course) into his own seat with a sigh.

Midoriya glanced at the blonde and nodded. He got a nod in return but the blonde then pulled a big pack of papers out of his bag. It fell onto the greenettes desk with a thud.

"They're notes. Every class but heroics. That's just an overview of what we did for each period but you're a nerd. Enjoy."

Midoriyas lips twitched as he read through the first page fleetingly. The scrawl was done nicely with surprising neatness. He glanced at Kastuki who was rereading his own notes and sure enough, the handwriting was messier.

He huffed, realizing that the other had actually wrote this all down for him in his own free time.

"Thanks, Kacchan."

His voice was quiet, not heard by anyone but the two of them. The blonde paused before shrugging and didn't meet his eyes. "Your welcome, shithead."

Midoriyas snort was definitely heard by everyone but nobody asked. The class began to fill, most if not all of the other students stopping by to talk to him. When class started, Aizawa didn't so much as look at him.

Midoriya told himself it didn't matter. Classes passed and Izuku felt himself getting more and more tired. When lunch hour came, he was planning on ignoring everybody and taking a nap. He had been getting looks from many of the other students, and he didn't know how to feel about it especially since nobody had talked to him, save for that morning.

He was about to pass out, to be honest. He was almost, almost tempted to stop by Recovery Girls office to get some meds or maybe even sleep during lunch. It seemed it wasn't going to happen when he saw a flash of pink and a smirk. Not a moment later he was dragged away, back to the classroom he was in that morning.

"Nice to see you again, Midori. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you didn't even try and hide."

She sounded put out but Izuku didn't have the energy to apologize.

"I'm tired."

She nodded, studying him shortly. "Yeah, you look like shit."

Izuku hummed in agreement. "Has anybody ever told you how nice you are?"

She shook her head, "Nope, never. Where's your food?"

Izuku held his hands up blankly. "Don't have any."

She glared at him and forced him to sit in a stool, setting her own food down in front of him. "Eat."

Izuku leaned away, "I'm fine, Hatsume-"

"Shut up and eat. I can't talk to you about any ideas if you pass out."

The boy rolled his eyes and hesitantly looked at the food. He knew that the food was decent and Food Rush was the only cook on campus for a reason but he didn't know if he could stomach it.

"Just take small bites. Don't kill yourself over it."

Izuku sighed, deciding to hell with it and ate it. He was able to swallow without gagging, so it was edible at least. That was good. Mei reached over and took a fry, Midoriyas lips twitched and he pushed it closer within her reach. Middle point between them both.

"You were in that class that got attacked during the field trip right? The USJ? You the same kid who saved everyone?"

Izuku chewed and swallowed, looking at the other dryly.

"If you look at it that way, then yeah. I am. But I managed to get my ass handed to me."

She shrugged. "Not much you can do about it. People say that you stared down the big bad and took down a giant."

Surprisingly, that wasn't far from the truth. Midoriya didn't go any further into it specifically.

"Where'd you hear that from?"

"People from 1-A, so it must be true. They also say you got thrown around more or less."

Izuku bit into the apple, studying her. She wouldn't bring this up without reason.

"What do you want?"

Mei leaned against the table and only looked somewhat guilty. "I wanna see your set up. First years aren't allowed to work on student equipment until second year or by invitation."

Izuku rose an amused brow. "And you want me to invite you."

She nodded eagerly. He sighed, finding himself hungry now that he had food in front of him. He didn't reach for much more, since it wasn't his to begin with. Midoriya folded his arms and tucked himself inwards.

There were things that he wanted to change with his costume. He already knew that. He knew that any altercations had to be approved through the school. It would be easier if he knew the person doing it. Mei most likely knew the process anyway.

But at the same time, Mei was smart. That was clear within the first five minutes that he had met her. If anybody was likely going to connect things that had to do with him, it would be her. But…

Whatever. She saw him hack into the school server which could have him expelled. If she were to find anything out, she'd most likely find it more entertaining than anything.

"Fine."

She almost started cheering but he held a hand up.

"But," He interjected. "I decide what happens with my stuff. You can make it, but the end product is approved my me. I don't like surprises. Deal?"

She nodded, squealing quietly for a minute. She then dug through her backpack and pulled out a note book. She flipped through it.

"Alright, I was looking through your file and saw a few things that I thought I could fix."

Izuku took a small sip from the juice pouch to refrain from smiling.

"Are you allowed to do that?"

The girls smile dropped. "No. But you aren't allowed to hack into servers either. UAs especially."

Midoriya nodded, looking down. He didn't have anything to say against that.

"Ok, so your-"

Come the end of the day, Midoriya was dead tired. Ready to pass out tired. Ready to fall into an early grave tired. However, Bakugou was waiting outside for him and didn't look to be going anytime soon. He messaged Aizawa, already knowing that he wouldn't be getting a reply. He sighed, pocketing his phone and resigned himself to a few more hours.

"You up for this, nerd?"

Izuku nodded, rubbing his eyes. "I'd really like to just get it over with. No offense. How far is it to your house?"

Katsukis response was quick. "Only twenty or so minutes by train. Dinners already made though. You still like katsudon?"

Izuku snorted, looking at the other in surprise. He didn't comment on the others surprising act of kindness, knowing that the other will take offense. He had a reputation after all.

"Of course."

The rest of the walk was quiet. Katsuki was tense, like he wanted to say something but didn't. Izuku never pushed, already drained and knew that tonight would be even harder.

They were walking off the train and through a somewhat familiar neighborhood. Izuku yawned once more, eyeing the other through the side of his eye.

"Can I ask who you're texting?"

The response was both flat and automatic.

"Shitty hair."

Midoriyas lips twitched, "Ah. Red, Tape or Pikachu?"

Katsuki looked up, almost seeming confused. "Red. You call him Pikachu, too?"

"It fits," Izuku defended lightly.

The blonde snorted, sliding his phone away. "So does shitty hair. The kid has to put fifty cans in a day."

Midoriya hummed, "Maybe. You didn't have to stop you know."

Katsuki shrugged. "Conversation was over anyway."

"Your over or actually over?"

Katsuki had a smirk on when he responded. "I say when a conversation is over, how about that?"

Midoriya groaned, "That makes you an ass, you know that?"

The other only shrugged, stopping when they came to a house. Midoriya whistled.

"I forgot how huge this place was."

Katsuki nodded, gripping his backpack tighter for a minute. "You sure about this?"

Izuku glanced at him, bouncing at the balls of his feet. For now, he was filled with nervous energy more than anything.

"As I'll ever be. Lead the way."

Izuku followed, the other throwing the door open without hesitation.

"I'm home, hag!"

Midoriya winced, taking his shoes off and setting them on the respective mat. He rubbed his arm uncertainly and followed Bakugou further into the house.

"In the kitchen, brat!"

Midoriya stopped, coming to a large table that could be seen from the kitchen. Masaru, older but still having the kind and patient aura that Izuku thought he had imagined as a kid was still there. Mitsuki's face was still harsh, eyes kind but teasing. She didn't look a day younger then he remembered.

The pan clattered to the counter and the woman took off the oven mitts, leaning against the large island and just studied him. Midoriya would feel weirded out if he didn't have the sudden urge to bawl. He managed, barely.

Mitsukis red eyes softened, her voice barely a whisper.

"Kami, kid. You grew up, didn't you?"


	13. Meeting Grounds

The teen nodded slowly at the others response after a moment, his mind running in circles. Of course he had. It had been, what, six, seven years? Izuku couldn't talk through the building in his throat. The woman came around the island and hugged him.

Immediately, it was awkward. The teen was rod straight, face laced with confusion, he knew. But the hug only got tighter. His eyes burned and he closed them. Hesitantly, he wrapped his own arms around the other.

He idly wondered when it was that he last hugged somebody…

"Foods getting cold hag."

The woman sighed, giving him a quick kiss on his temple and stepped back, pushing him into a seat. He almost felt ganged up on once he saw the seating arrangements but he wasn't surprised. Mitsuki and Masaru were on opposite ends of the table. Katsuki sat across from him.

"It's good to see you again, Izu-kun."

Izuku froze for a second, glancing at the man who had spoken. Izu-kun. Kami, he hadn't heard that in- A bit of unease filtered through the mans eyes but the teen relaxed. "It's good to see you, too. Really."  
The man smiled, looking at his wife and nodded.

"Why don't we eat and then- and then we can talk."

Izuku nodded in his own acceptance, stomach clenching when he plated his food. When was the last time he had katsudon? Homemade katsudon at that?

"Eat as much as you'd like."

Izuku huffed lightly, smiling at the woman. "Thank you."

She nodded and they descended into silence. Midoriya knew that it wasn't normal. Katsuki was naturally loud. And he got that from his mother. He swallowed, looking down. The clock ticked loudly in the silence.

"You can talk you know? I'm not going to break." He pulled a face at his own wording and looked down.  
The woman set her chopsticks on the table and folded her arms. "I know that."

The green haired teen nodded lightly. "We don't have to talk about my-my mom, or anything if you don't want to. But if you want to, we can. It goes for any of you."

Mitsuki nodded after a moment, glancing at her son before turning back to him.

"You already know I'm not good with words. And I'm, uh, blunt or something. Can I just ask what had…happened? What happened? Exactly?"

Midoriya snorted despite himself. It was refreshing and it did bring back memories. Good ones, surprisingly. He only let himself think on it for a moment before nodding.

"Right, well. She died over a year ago and…um, how much has Katsuki told you?"

The woman frowned, already knowing that this wasn't going to go very well.

"He told me that Inko died and that she and Hiashi divorced years before. Nothing more."

Izuku nodded, drinking a bit of water and gathered his thoughts. He took his beanie off and scratched his hair. He hummed under his breath. Where to start?

"Hiashi was cheating on my mom for years. It was mainly because I was quirkless, I think. He hadn't been happy with my mom and I so he found someone else. It went on for a few years. When I was seven, my mom filed for divorce. He agreed without hesitating and neither of us were surprised. He, uh, eventually stopped paying child support and we moved. We lived in Kinoto for a few months before we settled down in Tsubani."

Mitsukis eyes filled with tears and rage. Masaru rested his head on his hand. Izuku felt bad but knew that this needed to go by fast. Not slow. Not piece by piece. They wanted the whole picture.

"My mom worked two jobs and it was already a tight budget. It was stressful. It-" Izuku cleared his throat and pinched himself. They didn't need to know everything. The little things didn't matter. They didn't need to know how much they struggled. The teen cleared his throat again.

"I didn't realize anything was wrong until she didn't make it to work one day. I was at school and didn't notice anything was off. She usually worked late so I didn't worry about it. But, uh, it got pretty late and I hadn't heard from her so I called a couple people. None of them knew where she was."

And it pissed him off too, he remembered. Looking up, he realized that none of them were looking at him and it caused the churning in his stomach to worsen.

"I found her in her room and I called the ambulance and we went to the hospital. The doctors ran their tests and we found out what it was. She had stage four pancreatic cancer. She- her treatments went on for four months before she died."

Izuku drank the rest of his water and waited for something. Anything. But nothing came until Mitsuki let out a sob. Her crying continued and Masaru was muttering to himself. Katsuki, despite hearing this before, in greater detail before even, was hiding in his hand. Midoriya stood, feeling the sudden urge to leave them to their…mourning.

"Thank you for the meal," He said through clenched teeth.

Katsuki's eyesattention snapped to him and he opened his mouth but Izuku turned. He couldn't breathe and this was a lot harder than he'd expected. It was easier to talk about it to somebody who hadn't known his mother. Someone who didn't know how he was- he didn't know. He didn't know all he wanted to do was get out of there.

"Deku- fuck! Izuku, wait!"

Izuku felt more then saw Katsuki pull him into his chest. They were at least a block away from the Bakugous house. He didn't even know how he got here.

"Breathe. Izuku, you need to breathe, alright?"

He nodded against the chest, not having noticed that the other had several inches of height on him until now. He felt his knees give out but the other fell with him. He heard a panicked curse but he could only cough harshly into the others chest as he tried breathe. His lungs, eyes and legs burned.

"In and out. In and out, good-good job. In and out."

Once he was sure he was breathing normally, he looked back up at Katsuki. He only had the time to see red eyes widen, flash in panic before the world went dark.

"Izuku!"

XXX

When Izuku woke up, it was dark. The only light in the room was filtering in through the sheer curtains on the window.

…He didn't have curtains.

Izuku sat up, intending to find out where the hell he was as quietly as he could when his stomach burned in pain.

"Deku?"

Izuku didn't respond, recognizing the voice as Katsukis. He held his breath, wondering why he was with Katsuki and why his stomach hurt so bad. When he could breathe again, he pulled his hands away from his torso, mind blanking when they came back red.

Katsuki cursed, turning to go somewhere and Izuku panicked, pulling Katsuki back down. The blonde fell on the bed with as much dignity as he could.

"Hey-"

"What happened?"

Katsukis face softened and it put Izuku off slightly. The greenette looked back down, finding that his stab wound had opened again. Not all the way but it tore through a couple of the stitches. That would explain why it hurt so bad.

"You don't remember."

Izuku met his eyes, not bothering to respond as the other had answered his own question. Izuku stood, ignoring the others attempt to have him sit back down. He saw his backpack resting against a wall and headed towards it.

Picking it up, he sucked in a breath in at the pull. He turned back to Katsuki, finding his face blank and studying him. He rose a brow, waiting for the other to speak up but he didn't.

"Bathroom."

Katsuki wordlessly got up, walking towards the same door that he was trying to before. He flicked the light on and stood next to it. Izuku sidestepped the other, pushing the others behavior out of mind and looked at himself in the mirror.

He looked like shit.

Cursing softly, he tugged the bandages that were wrapped around his torso. They weren't the ones that he put on that morning, so that meant that Katsuki or his parents had mended to him. It left him feeling anxious about something.

Pulling the bandages off also pulled the light scabbing that formed. Biting back a grunt, he pushed his hand against it and looked through his backpack with his other hand. Finding what he was looking for, he pulled out the small sandwich bag that held an even smaller, homemade first aid kit.

Opening it with his teeth, he found the tweezers easily and began pulling the old stitches out.

"What the hell?"

Izuku sent the other a warning look through the mirror. Katsukis jaw clenched and he glared. "Do you even know what you're doing?"

Izuku stilled before a snort escaped him. He quickly smothered it, looking away from the other and continued what he was doing.

"At least let me help."

He paused again, looking up at the other through the shag of hair that fell over his face. He let out a deep breath, pulling the last stitch out and put more pressure on it. He stared at Katsuki through the mirror. His shoulders drooped when he realized that the other wasn't going to let him be.

Midoriya glanced at the bag on the counter. "Thread the needle."

Katsuki reached passed him and did so without hesitating. Izuku watched him, making a move to grab the needle when it was done when the blonde slapped his hand away. The greenette rose a brow before relenting and jumped onto the counter, leaning against the mirror and ignored how the faucet dug into his back.

The hand on his stomach made him jump and he refused to look at the other, opting to stare at the ceiling. The needle threading through his skin made him jump, kicking the cabinet underneath him and his eyes watered.

"Wh- ow! Do you know what you're doing?" Izuku hissed at the other. Katsukis face had a bit more color then the usual light tan but the other ignored it. Katsuki didn't answer.

Izuku let out a breath, along with his anger. He pushed the others hand away and continued where the other left off. He stayed sitting.

"Can you at least tell me what happened?"

Katsuki didn't answer for a moment. Izuku bit back a whine, reaching for the small sewing scissors and cut the string before starting again.

"You ran out after you told us what happened. I followed you but you were fucking fast. You must have tripped a couple times before I got to you cause your hands were all cut up and shit. You blacked out. I didn't even notice that, whatever the hell this was opened up again till we got back here. My parents wanted to take you to the hospital but I didn't think you'd appreciate it."

Izuku paused, letting his lip go from the abuse and looked at the other. His voice was quiet. "Thanks."

Katsuki nodded, opening a drawer to get a towel and got it wet with the tub faucet before handing it to him. Izuku carefully cleaned the blood away. He looked at his hands, now registering the stinging and found that his hands were scraped up pretty bad.

"What was it from? The…hole. Thing. This fucking mess. What was it from?"

Izuku rose a brow, jumping off the counter and pulled out a small square of cloth and a small roll of medical tape. After finishing bandaging it, he packed it back up.

"I'm surprised Aizawa didn't tell you guys."

"So it was from the fight. The USJ. Fucking handsy."

Midoriya gave a small huff of amusement and walked back out and into the others room once more. He had no idea where his shirt was. Or his phone.

"Rebar. It was Old Smoky. And Handsy I guess. But he really just messed my face up."

Katsuki didn't give an outward reaction. Izuku let out what felt like a millionth sigh. He looked around Katsukis room, not knowing what else to do and slightly embarrassed to ask where his stuff was. His eyes fell on the bookshelf and his heart jumped to his throat.

Before he knew it, he was walking towards the shelf that housed comics, collectables and other books. He picked the picture up and studied it for what felt like forever.

God, how old were they?

He swallowed with difficulty, looking at the other who wasn't looking at him. Izuku idly wondered if it was a game they were playing.

"You kept it."

The other gave a grunt after a moment but nothing else was said.

The frame was made of popsicle sticks, painted red, white and blue. Gold star stickers surrounded the frame, half peeled off. The picture itself was almost painful to look at. Both of them couldn't be more than five, maybe six. They were both in matching All Might footies and each holding up an All Might figurine. Their faces were covered in god knows what.

It was taken at one of their birthdays. He couldn't remember what or when.

Izuku set the frame down softly, walking backwards before his back hit the wall and he closed his eyes in exhaustion. He ran a hand through his hair, wincing when it got caught on a knot.

"Here's your phone. Aizawas been messaging. So was someone named Tsukauchi. And All Might. I would have responded but couldn't figure out your stupid passcode."

Izuku caught the phone, looking away from the other and slid down the wall. Ignoring the messages, he pulled up Aizawas number and just called the man. He picked up after the first two rings.

"Midoriya?"

"Aizawa-"

"Where are you?"

Izuku bit his lips harshly, letting go when he tasted iron. He settled for banging his head on the wall behind him. He was tired of this happening. He wanted to sleep. He didn't want to deal with any of this.

"I'm at…a friends. I'm at a friends."

Aizawa was quiet for a moment, his voice as tired as he felt. "Are you ok?"

Izuku laughed in response, pulling his knees to his chest and gripped his hair with the hand not holding the phone.

"Midoriya? Are you ok? Do I need to come get you?"

The teen wondered how he was planning to do that. He didn't have a car. He didn't know where he was. Not only that, but suddenly the other was talking to him again. Like nothing had- like he wasn't just disappointed and pissed at him out hours before.

"I'll be back at your place in a bit."

Not a moment later, Midoriya blinked at the absent weight in his hand. Looking up, he saw Katsuki holding his phone up to his ear and glared at him with something holy.

"Aizawa."

There was a lengthy pause. Midoriya was just very confused.

"Yeah, listen. I've known the idiot my whole life, I'm not gonna torture him or some shit. We'll be in class tomorrow morning. Good?"

There was a couple beats before Katsuki threw the phone back at him. Izuku looked down uncomfortably and saw that the call had ended. His brows pursed.

"Guess you're my responsibility now. Don't get why you have our homeroom teachers number but you're staying here tonight. We should get some fucking sleep. We only have a few hours until school."

Izuku watched the other fall into the bed and he blinked once more.

What the hell…

"You just gonna sit there all night?"

The teen swallowed, stretching his legs out. "…Yes."

He winced as a pillow came at his head with surprising viciousness. Katsuki glared at him but it was halfhearted, if that.

"Get in bed dumbass. I don't want to deal with you whining in the morning anymore then I have to if I can help it."

Midoriya took a deep breath, standing before sliding in the bed as instructed. He was too tired to argue. He didn't have the energy to think about what was happening or fight it. He just closed his eyes and fell asleep barely moments later.

Blissfully dreamless.

XXX

Katsuki slept very troubled that night. Like he had the past several but worse. It had been like this since the USJ and to be honest, he was getting pretty sick of it. He was exhausted.

He knew from the start, when he first saw Izuku down in the middle with the huge fugly and handsy, that he couldn't leave the other. He knew that. He knew, somehow, that it wouldn't end well. Not that it took a genius but…

He did it anyway. He left Izuku and-

Well, All Might came. The villains left like the cowards they were and the next thing he knew was that All Might was gone as quickly as he came and Izuku was missing. Fucking Aizawa wouldn't say anything about it either. Not that he had been conscious immediately after that but he awoke when they reached outside.

If he had to guess, the teacher seemed particularly upset about it, which made sense but, Katsuki knew something was off. With all of it.

But the dreams. At night…

Seeing Izuku go up against fugly, whatever the hell the thing was. And he left him with Handsy. With a bad guy. Alone.

The teen treaded a hand through his hair and glanced at the other occupant in his bed with a frown.

Izuku in general never made much sense. Entranced completely by heroes, a freaking genius in his own right and his best friend. It didn't take more than a day for a younger Katsuki to decide on that when their mothers first introduced them.

Then he didn't get a quirk. He was quirkless. Which was…fine. Katsuki was hurt, a little. He felt it unfair. All their talk of becoming top heroes came crashing down and…the boy wanted to protect the other. Katsuki wanted, no needed to protect the other.

Bad guys were just that, bad. And strong. And Izuku, for all his genius and kindness and the heart of a hero that he gave so freely…wasn't.

He didn't have a quirk and he would get hurt.

But it seemed that he was the only one that realized that.

Izuku still spoke of heroes, of protecting people and he still defended the other kids from their seniors and, well he wouldn't stand up to him would he? To his best friend?

But he did.

And Katsuki got scared. And he got mean and he knew it. But he didn't know what to do about it and then…

Izuku was gone.

Until the first day of UA and…Katsuki didn't know what to do.

Izuku was different. Quieter, smarter but…darker. But no less kind.

And still quirkless.

He wanted answers. And he got them.

And…he thought, Katsuki thought so stupidly that things could maybe go back to how things were all those years ago. Or at least… he didn't know.

And then the USJ shit and his heart fucking stopped. He felt cold. And he couldn't think straight and well, then he came back. Looking like the definition of shit and he brought Izuku back and…

Katsuki swallowed, blinking away tears, not even annoyed because the only thing he felt right now was scared. Terrified, even. Not that he'd ever say that shit out loud.

Hesitantly, the teen lifted his hand to where the other teen was laying on his stomach. (How he could sleep where he apparently got stabbed, he had no idea but…) There were two, half inch gnarled scars that were faint but most definitely there. He would say that were old but he had seen the old nurses' quirk before.

There were three others, just like them on Izukus other side.

And…

Well, it was safe to say that Katsuki never got over heroes despite his best friends dissapearance in his life. For all Katsuki respected All Might and the other top ten, he wasn't stupid enough to dismiss other kinds of heroes. Police, firefighters, doctors, they were all heroes in their own right.

But vigilantes?

The skin, while as bumpy as it was scarred was smooth underneath his fingertips. Izuku frowned in his sleep, shoving his face further into the pillow. Katsuki continued, stupidly, to trace the others scars and there were several.

It was one thing to see them in the locker room where it looked more like natural skin discoloration and it wasn't like he would intentionally check the other guys out in the locker room. But, well.

It was another thing entirely to realize that your friend, your best friend from years ago, was a vigilante.

And a heart stopping shock to come to the realization that said friend was Midorikari.

The once and only, Midorikari.

But, of course, it all fit. A little too well, a little too snug and made too much sense.

Katsuki withdrew his hand and palmed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, the teen moved the blankets away and left the room. A walk would be good. He couldn't breathe and-

It was fair to say that he had no idea what to do.

XXX

Let me know what you think.


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